


As Long As You're Mine

by Imagination_Parade



Series: Nothing to Lose [2]
Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Humor, Kissing, Magical Artifacts, Missing Scenes, Romance, Romantic Fluff, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:16:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 31,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4827059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imagination_Parade/pseuds/Imagination_Parade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of Cassandra/Stone one-shots to accompany my earlier story where Cassandra has (successful) brain surgery to get rid of that pesky tumor in her head. This will consist mostly of relationship moments missing from that first story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Elevator

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stone and Cassandra aren't sure who initiated that unexpected kiss in the hospital elevator...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is going to be a collection of moments from Stone & Cassandra's relationship & will serve as a companion to my earlier fic entitled "Nothing to Lose But Your Head." In that story, I skipped straight from first kiss to wedding, totally cheating everyone out of all the shippy scenes that come in between, so I'm going back and writing some of those here.
> 
> If you haven't read that first story (and I don't think you'd need to to read this one, but go read it because I'm really proud of it!) Cassandra had brain surgery with Dr. Amelia Shepherd from Grey's Anatomy, and Stone and the others took care of her after, bringing everyone a little closer in the process. Ezekiel tracked down an artifact that would prevent her tumor from ever returning, and Amelia asked Cassandra if Stone had kissed her yet during a follow-up appointment, alerting Cassandra to the idea that maybe there might be something there between them. She met Stone in the waiting room after, they kissed in the elevator, and that's where this first chapter picks up. If you want to read just that kiss scene, it's at the end of Chapter 6.
> 
> Keeping with the song title theme, this one is from Wicked!
> 
> Happy reading :)

Jacob Stone felt his stomach suddenly flip, but he wasn’t sure if that was the result of the beginning of the elevator’s descent or the feel of Cassandra’s mouth against his. He had kissed her, and he was _still_ kissing her, a move that sent his mind racing with thoughts, some completely unintelligible and others more along the lines of _what the hell were you thinking_.

He thought her tumor was back, that’s what he’d been thinking. He thought they’d been too late and that amulet around her neck wasn’t going to be worth a damn, but then she’d looped her arm with his and told him otherwise, and then he couldn’t seem to let go of her, even when they were waiting to board the elevator, and then she’d turned around, putting herself in his arm, and he’d just…he’d just _kissed_ her.

He was about to come to his senses and let her go when he felt her hands come up to clutch his sides, and he realized, _finally_ , that this kiss _wasn’t_ completely one-sided. She was kissing him, too. Stone had never been a big fan of elevators, but as Cassandra’s lips moved in a perfect cadence with his, he thought he might just have to change his mind.

For the first time in her life, Cassandra Cillian’s brain felt empty, as if she couldn’t think a single thought if she wanted to. Her hands came up to clutch the sides of his body, giving her some much-needed stability as her senses were assaulted with the smells of his aftershave (and something decidedly sweeter, though that was probably just her synesthesia) and the taste of his bottom lip between hers. She didn’t even realize he was kissing her back until the arm around her back tightened, causing her to take a tiny step forward until she felt his chest press against hers. Her arms instinctively slid all the way around his body.

Their mouths engaged in soft, quick, silent kisses, the elevator quiet save for the sounds of their mingled breaths, until the ding that signaled their arrival on the ground floor pulled their attention away from one another, reminding them that they weren’t really alone, but in a hospital in Seattle. Their kisses came to an end with the gentlest of smacks, and they dropped their hold on one another as the elevator doors slid open. If there were people waiting to board, Cassandra and Stone didn’t notice. They had only traveled a few floors; how had everything changed so quickly?

By the time his eyes opened, she was already gazing at him with wide, blue eyes. Her lips were swollen pink, mouth slightly opened to accommodate her elevated breathing, the thoughts finally returning to her head. _She_ had just _kissed_ him; that was so unlike her. She had found herself wrapped in his arm, the object of his captivated stare, Dr. Shepherd’s words swimming in her mind, and she’d just _kissed_ him. What was she supposed to do now?

The elevator doors started to slide shut again, Cassandra and Stone still alone inside, and he leaned over to press the button that would keep the doors open.

“We should probably…” he muttered awkwardly, nodding towards the lobby.

“Right,” she nodded, finally tearing her eyes away from him. “Yes, let’s umm…let’s go.”

She turned her head to look out into the hospital lobby when the doors started to slide shut again. Stone’s hand shot out, catching the door. Cassandra cautiously looked up at him, and the corners of his mouth curled into an almost bashful grin as he looked away. He looked so adorable that her entire face broke into a smile, her fears that everything between them had just been monumentally screwed up dissipating.

They walked side-by-side in silence out of Grey Sloan Memorial, heading for the ally a few blocks away that contained their portal back to the Annex in Portland. When they reached the end of the hospital driveway, Stone gently nudged her with his elbow and gestured in the opposite direction.

“Detour before we go home?” he asked. Cassandra nodded.

He took her to a park near the hospital that he had discovered the one time he allowed himself to step away and get some fresh air while she was still in recovery. As they walked along the trail, she asked him how he found this place, and they fell into a comfortable rhythm. After a while, she pointed to a bench, asking if they could take a little break.

She sat down on the metal bench, and he sat down directly next to her, their knees almost touching. An awkward silence fell over them again until Cassandra finally sat up a bit, shifting so she was slightly turned towards him. He glanced at her, expecting the change in position to be the start of a conversation.

“You gonna say somethin’?” he finally asked after several moments of silence.

Cassandra bit her lip lightly before she slowly and simply said, “The _elevator_.”

Stone grinned and sat up from the back of the a little himself. “What ‘bout it?” he asked, letting her take the lead. He didn’t know how she felt about it, and he didn’t want to assume.

“Do you think we could maybe…do that again?” she asked.

“Ride an elevator?” he teased, fighting the smile that was trying to emerge on his face.

“No, umm…” she replied with a laugh. “I meant the other thing.”

Without saying anything, Stone slipped his hand from its stretched out position against the bench to down behind her back. Cassandra’s eyes closed as she felt a hand on her body drawing her back into him. Their noses bumped awkwardly as he pushed her towards him, eliciting light, nervous giggles from Cassandra.

“Okay, try again,” she whispered.

Stone chuckled, too, and curled his palm around her cheek, helping them achieve an angle that allowed his lips to brush against hers in a small, almost hesitant kiss. Cassandra pulled back slightly after just the one kiss, and Stone ran his thumb across her cheek, encouraging her to come back for more. She leaned into another kiss, and it was a few minutes before he let her go.

“Can I ask you kind of a weird question?” Cassandra asked after they separated.

“Sure,” Stone replied.

 _I thought for sure he’d kiss you as soon as you were feeling a little better_ , Dr. Shepherd had told her, and while she didn’t want to _tell_ Stone that she and her neurosurgeon had talked about him in that exam room, Cassandra just had to know.

“When did you know you wanted to kiss me?” she asked. “Like, how long ago?”

Stone chuckled. “To be honest, darlin’, I’m not sure I did until it was happenin’,” he said. “What about you?”

“Well, I guess about four seconds before that since I kissed you,” she said.

“No, you didn’t,” Stone said. “ _I_ kissed _you_.”

“Wh…you thought…” Cassandra stuttered.

“Didn’t I?” Stone asked, now not really sure.

“I thought _I_ …” Cassandra started, pointing at herself.

The conversation came to a halt as both of them started laughing, silently agreeing that maybe the kisses in the elevator had been a team effort.

“Actually, there might’ve been one time,” Stone admitted. “You were starin’ at me from the bathtub, water just pourin’ down your face, and you looked…”

“ _Pathetic_!” Cassandra finished for him, remembering how humiliating that entire incident had been. “You wanted to kiss me when I looked pathetic?”

“Never, not once, did you look pathetic,” he said sincerely. A small smile teased the edges of her lips, and he teasingly added, “A little pitiful, maybe…”

Cassandra let out a disgusted scoff and lightly pushed him away from her. “Those are synonyms, you jerk.”

Stone leaned a little back towards her, slung his arm across her shoulders, and said he had a weird question of his own. Cassandra nodded; it was only fair.

“So if math smells like breakfast, what, uh…” he started, looking at her with a bit of a wicked grin. “What does the synesthesia do with kissin’?”

“Kissing smells like strawberry cupcakes,” she said. “At least with you. So far, anyway. The data I have to work with is rather limited.”

Stone briefly thought that if any other girl had said that to him, he’d have thought she was absolutely nuts, but he decided to interpret her last statement as flirting, and then they were kissing again, soft and sweet and full of promises.

***************************************

Later, after a dinner in Seattle and a lot more talking, Stone and Cassandra finally made their way through the Back Door, hand-in-hand. They didn’t expect anyone to still be in the Annex at that time, but Baird and Flynn were front and center, clustered around a book at the center table. They looked up as the Back Door rumbled, immediately noticing the pair’s clasped hands.

Baird raised her eyebrows at Stone again, grinning, and Stone sighed, looking just a little bit guilty because this time, her interpretation of events was right. Cassandra didn’t notice the silent interaction between Stone and the Guardian; her eyes were on a perplexed-looking Flynn, cheeks reddening slightly as he pointed to their hands.

“What is happening here? What is…are you two…what is this?” Flynn asked, stuttering over the words. Cassandra glanced down at their joined hands and looked back towards Flynn.

“Is this okay?” she asked simply.

Flynn, coming to a realization, smiled fondly and said, “It’s okay.”

“Colonel Baird?” Cassandra asked.

Baird rolled her eyes. “ _Please_ , like that hasn’t been in the works for months now.”

Stone and Cassandra shared a look, each of them muttering, “Okay…” in turn, before heading for the exit. Baird called after them, asking where they were going.

“To get cupcakes!” Stone called back, and Cassandra’s laughter echoed in the hallway.

After a few moments, when the laughter had died down, Flynn turned to Baird. “They’re not really going to consume cake, are they?”

“I’m betting _no_ ,” Baird replied.

Flynn’s head rapidly traveled back and forth between Baird and the doorway as his feet traveled just a few steps towards where Stone and Cassandra had departed. He finally looked at Baird again and said, “Wh…I…now, I am not so certain I approve of _that_.”

Baird walked over to him and slung an arm around his shoulders, gently nudging him back to the work they were doing in the center table. She grinned and said, “Come on, _Dad_ , I’ll help you get through it. It’ll be okay.”

“Dad? Why would you say such a…” Flynn started. He stopped suddenly when he realized that was exactly the reaction he was having to Cassandra and Stone’s newfound relationship. “They just grow up so fast.”

Baird nodded and lovingly rubbed his shoulder, playing along. “I know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing beyond what you've just read is written, so this probably won't be updated regularly, but I'll do my best!


	2. We Got Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things heat up when Stone takes Cassandra home, and Cassandra finally gets a wish fulfilled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the great response on the first chapter! You guys are the best! 
> 
> This one picks up pretty much where the last one left off. They're not all going to be back-to-back like this, but well, they weren't done kissing, haha.

The small apartment was dark when they walked in, but they were both so familiar with the dwelling that it didn’t matter. Cassandra locked the door behind them, and, before she could turn a light on, Stone had her in his arms again, kissing her like he couldn’t have kissed her on a short elevator ride or in a wide open public park. Her eyes widened for just a moment, a squeak of surprise bubbling from her throat, before she sunk into the kiss, curling her fingers in the short hair at the nape of his neck and arching her body into his.

He walked her backwards down the familiar hallway that lead to her bedroom, not even thinking to stop and ask for permission since he’d already spent so many nights in there with her, listening to her breathe. If she minded, she didn’t say anything, her lips diving right back in for another kiss as soon as the one before it ended. Stone’s tongue brushed across hers, and even though kissing Cassandra had barely been but a dream on his bucket list that morning, now that they’d started kissing, he couldn’t seem to stop.

She reached behind her to make sure she had enough space to sit down as soon as the back of her legs hit the edge of her mattress. Without losing him, she lowered herself to the bed, and he did, too, kicking his shoes off as he climbed onto the middle. He took her with him, both of them settling on their sides as they kissed. Soft panting began to fill the dark room as Stone wrapped a strong arm around her waist and moved them up towards her pillows.

“Jacob,” she breathed in between kisses. Sensing she wanted to say something, but not wanting to let his lips leave her for more than a few seconds, Stone focused his attention on the soft skin around her ear. “Jacob, how far are we taking this tonight?”

The words came out muffled, as her head had fallen into the crook of his neck as he kissed hers. He sighed and briefly rested his head against her.

“I’m stoppin’,” he said, a whispered promise. He pulled away from her and turned on the little lamp by her bed. She had rolled onto her back when he moved away from her, and her vibrant hair was splayed across the pillow, her lips pink and swollen. He bent his elbow against her mattress, resting his head on his hand, and looked down at her. “Just kissing tonight,” he said, caressing her cheek. “Then I’m stoppin’.”

“You wouldn’t have to,” Cassandra whispered. Off of Stone’s look of protest, she said, “I know that’s fast, probably too fast, but it’s you. I know you. It’s…it’s _us_.”

Stone leaned down and kissed her twice more before he pulled away again, resting the hand that had been on her cheek against her waist. “Nah, we’re stoppin’,” he insisted. “I don’t got anything, and I happen to know _exactly_ what medications you’re takin’ these days, so…”

He let his voice trail off as she chuckled embarrassingly, realizing he totally had her there. As her face settled into a slightly regretful look, he gave her waist a gentle squeeze.

“Hey,” he whispered.

She looked up at him with her blue eyes, and he leaned in again. She thought he was going for another kiss, but he changed course on the way down, aiming higher. Her eyes closed as she felt him place a kiss just next to the scar on her head, the one that had almost finally disappeared underneath soft, new red hair.

“We got time,” Stone muttered.

The gesture was so simple and tender, his words so marvelously unfamiliar, that it almost brought tears to Cassandra’s eyes. They had _time_. She could lie there and kiss him for a year if she wanted to because thanks to a doctor in Seattle and an Egyptian amulet around her neck and a young Librarian who’d never met a law he didn’t feel the need to break, she didn’t have to worry (too much) about unwillingly leaving this Earth any time soon. She’d had almost four months so far to adjust to that new normal, but every time she found a new situation to apply her little miracle to, it felt like seeing that tumor-free scan for the first time all over again.

Stone saw the tears threatening to fill her eyes as he moved away from her head, but before he could say anything, she’d leaned up to meet his lips again. When Stone realized he was one hand short of the amount of hands he’d need to hold his own head up, cup hers, and keep her body nestled against his, he rolled her back onto her back, cupping her head protectively in his palm, and hovered above her, gently resting some of his weight against her.

Cassandra wasn’t sure how they were ever going to stop, but despite her better judgment, she gently curled one of her legs around him. He reacted immediately, running his hand from her knee to about halfway up her thigh, his fingertips burning a trail across her flesh, even through the candy-colored tights that covered her skin.

A few minutes and a few kisses later, Cassandra realized what a bad idea taking this to the bedroom had been. Not because they couldn’t stop, because they _could_ , when they wanted to, but because she was tired, utterly exhausted, and the longer they laid on her bed, the more she felt her body sink into the mattress, and the more the pillows and blankets beneath her began to feel almost as good as the man worshipping her lips. She felt it coming, but she couldn’t do anything about it, and the moment his lips left hers, even though he had intended for the loss of contact to only last a second or two, her mouth parted in a wide yawn.

Stone chuckled above her and rolled onto his side again.

“Am I boring you, darlin’?” he asked with a grin.

“No! Oh my god. I’m sorry,” she gasped, placing her hand against his chest as she hurried through her words and a pink glow settled against her cheeks. He laughed again.

“It’s okay,” he assured her. “You didn’t get to sleep this afternoon, unless you napped in the MRI machine.”

Cassandra shook her head. “Too nervous,” she admitted.

“Then it’s okay,” he repeated.

Cassandra rolled her eyes and groaned, “I shouldn’t need naps to get through the day anymore. I’m not four.”

Stone laughed again as she began pouting exactly like a four-year-old and reminded her, “Dr. Shepherd said you’re doin’ just fine.”

Cassandra fingered the middle edges of his button-down shirt and said, “I think I’m doing better than _fine_ now.”

They lingered in the shared smile for a few moments before Stone pushed himself up. “Get some sleep,” he said. “I’ll see ya in the morning.”

“No, stay,” Cassandra said, reaching out to grab his hand.

“Cassandra,” he mumbled.

“You’ve slept here a hundred times before,” she reminded him.

“It’s different now,” he told her.

“Yeah, it’s better now. You can hold me,” she said candidly. Surprised by her statement, he just froze, standing by her bed, her hand in his. She shrugged. “That’s all I want. I promise.”

“ _Cassandra_ ,” he said again. He wasn’t sure that was such a good idea.

“Please stay,” she said softly, and he knew, with that tone, she’d taken away his ability to say no.

“Twenty minutes,” he said. “I gotta go get some clothes from my place.”

She nodded, and, after a promise that he would, in fact, come back, he left. He knew he had somewhat implied that he’d be spending the night with her when they left the Library, despite the fact that actually doing so was never his intention, but he still chuckled to himself on his drive home when he thought about all the shit Baird would be giving him when they showed up together the next morning.

When he returned, he let himself back in with the key that still dangled from his key ring. He found her asleep in her bedroom down the hall, and he almost wished he hadn’t come back. Climbing into her bed always woke her up; she’d fall back to sleep in mere seconds, soft little sighs escaping her lips as she got comfortable again, but while the lights around her room and the sounds from her television never seemed to bother her, there was no getting around the fact that the movement against the mattress would have her waking.

He slipped into the bathroom to change into pajamas and grabbed the TV remote before he joined her under the covers. It was early, _ridiculously early_ , but she wanted him to be there with her, and he was willing to comply with that wish. Cassandra started to stir, and, upon hearing his voice, shifted towards him. It took a few tries to get knees and elbows and arms comfortably aligned, but soon, he was spooned in close behind her, her body nestled against his chest, hair damp from the shower she’d taken while he was gone tickling his face, and Cassandra instinctively let out a sigh that sounded a lot like _finally_.

“Cassie?” he whispered. She moaned a bit in response. “How long have you been wantin’ this?”

“Since Seattle, more or less,” she sleepily admitted. “The first Seattle, I mean. Not today.”

“ _Cassandra Cillian_!” he replied.

“What?” she asked on a groan. “I didn’t feel good. Who doesn’t want to be held when they don’t feel good?”

“I was supposed to be takin’ care of you,” Stone said. He would’ve been scared of hurting her had she tried to snuggle so soon after her surgery, but he hated the idea of her going without something she needed during that time.

“And you did,” she reminded him. “ _Wonderfully_.”

“Why didn’t you say nothin’?” he asked. “I would’ve done it.”

And he would have. Sleeping in the same bed had been a little awkward at first, as had a lot of the things that came with helping her recover from brain surgery; they’d even had a few arguments about their sleeping arrangements, but had she asked, he would’ve done anything she wanted.

“That’s _why_ I couldn’t say anything,” she replied. He opened his mouth to protest some more, but she cut him off. “Just be here when I wake up, okay?”  

He lightly kissed her shoulder and said, “I ain’t going nowhere.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	3. Unbreakable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra's first post-surgery case doesn't go as well as hoped...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments on the last chapter! They really do make my day :)
> 
> Just a little note to anyone who might be reading this without reading the first story (or who may need a little refresher):
> 
> Shortly after Cassandra's surgery, the Library snuck a book about magic into a bag Ezekiel put together for her, sparking her interest in the subject. While Cassandra couldn't join the rest of the team in the field for the first 4 months post-surgery, she filled her time studying magic, learning everything she could about it, to the point where she began to have the ability to harness it herself. The first time it happened, it was unintentional, and Flynn and Baird were the ones to figure out what was going on. Flynn's supportive, Baird's much more skeptical, and the guys don't know anything about this at all. And that's the setup to this installment :)

“Jacob Stone, you put me down _right now_!” Cassandra screamed, kicking her legs up and down with fervor as the Back Door returned them to the Annex in Portland.

Ezekiel and Stone had offered to go out on a case with her when Baird wasn’t looking earlier that day. The boys had let her do the honors, taking a case from her long-neglected little leather book, and they’d ended up in a small town in Southeast Asia, where things had started to seem just a little too apocalyptic as of late. It was Cassandra’s first time out since the surgery, so naturally, she wound up getting hurt.

Stone and Cassandra entered the portal first. He’d scooped her up bridal-style as soon as he’d seen the blood running down her pale arm, and she’d started protesting almost immediately; her legs were just fine, and she did _not_ need to be carried. Her protests fell on deaf ears as he carried her into the Annex.

“ _Jenkins_!” Stone angrily called.

“Put me down; I’m _fine_!” Cassandra tried again. She tried to scramble out of his arms, but his hold on her was too strong.

“You ain’t fine; you’re bleedin’,” Stone said firmly

He finally set her down gingerly on the Annex table, and she miraculously stayed put, while Ezekiel casually wandered through the Back Door behind them, rolling his eyes at all the theatrics, twirling the trishula of Shiva in one hand. Baird and Jenkins entered the main room of the Annex simultaneously as the Back Door closed behind Ezekiel. Baird appeared from the Library; Jenkins appeared from his lab. Baird noticed the blood right away.

“Oh god,” she said, hurrying over to the table where Cassandra sat. She picked up Cassandra’s arm to examine the wound.

“I’m fine,” Cassandra said again with a wave of her hands.

“How is that possible?” Stone asked angrily, staring at Jenkins.

“Mr. Stone, I’m not psychic. If you were there and don’t know how Miss Cillian got injured, I certainly can’t…” Jenkins started with a sigh.

“No, I mean, she’s got _that_ ,” Stone said, pointing at Cassandra’s amulet. “How is she bleedin’ right now?”

Ezekiel rolled his eyes, and Jenkins sighed. “That’s not really how it works,” Ezekiel said.

“I never thought I’d say this, but Mr. Jones is correct,” Jenkins said. “The amulet does not make her _invincible_ , Mr. Stone. She can still get injured. If Miss Cillian gets stabbed in the heart with a sword, for instance, she’s not going to be magically healed. Not from the amulet, anyway.”

All three Librarians and the Guardian in the room froze, the swinging weapon in Ezekiel’s hand coming to a slow stand-still, and turned to look at Jenkins, startled by his graphic example. Cassandra blinked a few times, processing the information she already knew but had never heard in quite those terms.

“Good to know,” Cassandra finally said.

“I thought she was protected,” Stone grumbled.

“It’s protecting my _health_ ,” Cassandra pointed out. “A little cut is not really negatively affecting any of my bodily processes.”

“That ain’t a cut, darlin’,” Stone said.

“Actually, it is,” Baird said. “It’s large, but it’s superficial, looks worse than it is. She doesn’t need stitches.”

“See?” Cassandra said to Stone. “I’m fine.”

“I don’t think you should be back out there yet,” Stone said.

“ _What_?” Cassandra exclaimed. “Why not?”

“The blood runnin’ down your arm ain’t a good enough reason for you?” he said.

“ _No_ , that was an accident; it’s just unfortunate timing that it happened on this case,” she argued.

“You should stay here tomorrow,” Stone said. “Jones and I can handle things for a while longer. You need more time off.”

Baird took a slight step back from Cassandra, glancing at Ezekiel. The young Librarian stared awkwardly back at her, both of them realizing they had just found themselves in the middle of a fight between the new couple. Jenkins chose that moment to quietly slip out of the Annex, retreating to the peace and quiet of his lab.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the _last_ thing I need,” Cassandra said, feeling as if her newly re-gained freedom was being threatened. “Dr. Shepherd said I was just fine to go out.”

“Dr. Shepherd doesn’t understand what it is that we do,” Stone pointed out.

“I think she might understand more than we think she does,” Cassandra muttered.

“What was that?” Stone asked.

“I said unless you’ve suddenly earned an M.D., I’m gonna listen to my doctor, not my boyfriend, and take the first case the clippings book wants to give me because I’m _done_ being stuck in these walls, and you’ll just have to find a way to deal with that,” Cassandra said, still on the table, hands on her hips.

“Damn it, Cassie, would you just listen to me?” Stone said. “You need to stay here.”

“Unbelievable,” she laughed. “You still don’t really trust me, do you?”

“Don’t make this about that,” he said. “I told ya before; that’s behind us. _This_ is not about that.”

“Okay, so you might trust _me_ , but it sure sounds like you don’t trust in my _abilities_ , which is basically the same thing,” Cassandra argued.

“You could get hurt out there!” Stone said, beginning to lose his cool.

“Oh, and you couldn’t, right?” Cassandra replied. She laughed in disbelief. “You are still so self-righteous, or have you forgotten about the night you showed up at my apartment with the amulet _and a head wound_?”

“I can handle myself out there,” Stone said.

“And I can’t?” Cassandra exclaimed.

“You couldn’t today,” he said. He pointed at the artifact in Ezekiel’s hands and said, “You just stood there and let that thing fry you!”

“ _Whoa_ ,” Baird said, finally interrupting the argument. “ _What_?”

“That is the trishula of the Hindu god Shiva,” Stone said. “The three points of the trident symbolize creation, maintenance, and destruction.”

“This one was heavily calibrated towards destruction,” Ezekiel added.

“Lightning or electricity or…some kind of energy something shot out from the three points, and _Cassandra_ , instead of duckin’ like a person with a bit of common sense would, just _stood there_ ,” Stone said accusingly.

Baird shifted her gaze among her three charges, knowing something about the story they were spinning didn’t feel quite right. Cassandra’s instincts were, in fact, to hide and had been since their very first field drills. There had to be more to the story.

“She just kinda put her hand out,” Ezekiel said. Cassandra shot him a glare. Ezekiel shrugged. He didn’t want to take sides in this little argument, but Stone had a bit of a point.

“As if _that_ was gonna stop the electricity,” Stone said, as if that was the stupidest thing he’d ever encountered.

At that, a look of realization crossed Baird’s face, the missing pieces of this puzzle of a story falling into place. She turned to Cassandra with a glare and raised her eyebrows a bit in question. Cassandra immediately looked guilty, something Stone didn’t pick up on.

“She may not be invincible, but she’s sure as hell actin’ like she thinks she is,” Stone continued, angry as ever.

“Yeah, I mean, I thought we agreed that I was going to be the one on this team to do all the reckless things,” Ezekiel joked with a laugh.

“And I don’t think she should be out there if she’s gonna act like that,” Stone argued.

“Oh, and who gave _you_ the authority to decide…” Cassandra started.

“Okay!” Baird said loudly, stepping in before things between them got even more heated than they already were.  “Boys, can I have a moment alone with Cassandra?” Neither guy seemed apt to move, so Baird added, “Flynn’s in the Library. Why don’t you go see if he has something that might heal her?”

The boys headed out, and Baird followed them until she was sure they were truly heading out of earshot. She circled on Cassandra, a stern look on her face. Cassandra looked at her like a kid who had been sent to the principal’s office.

“So,” Baird started. “Rusty instincts, or a failed attempt at _magic_?”

Cassandra held the Guardian’s stare for a moment before she scrunched up her face in self-hatred and admitted, “The second one. I thought I could deflect it. When I realized I couldn’t, I tried to get out of the way, but it happened too fast, and it didn’t strike me, but…”

“It grazed you,” Baird finished. Cassandra nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

“Look, I know you disapprove, but…” Cassandra started. Her entire face broke out into a dazzling grin as she said, “You just don’t know what it feels like when you think something, even something little, and it…it _happens_.”

“Yeah, how’s it feel when it doesn’t work?” Baird asked, maybe a little too harshly.

She knew Cassandra was as mad at herself as she was at Stone, but she also knew Cassandra’s success rate when it came to intentional magic was, so far, not terribly high, so the protector in her was mentally siding with Stone when it came to the foolishness of Cassandra’s actions.

“Extremely frustrating…and stupid,” Cassandra admitted, her face deflating. “I feel stupid.”

“I may not know what it feels like to do magic, but I do know what it feels like to lose someone on a mission,” Baird said. The expression on Cassandra’s face fully sobered at her words. “I know you probably feel a little unbeatable right now, but you’re not.”

“I know,” Cassandra whispered.

“If I had it my way, you wouldn’t be doing this magic thing at all, but since you are, you’ve _got_ to be smarter about it,” Baird told her. “Or else I’m going to agree that maybe you don’t need to be back out there yet.”

“No!” Cassandra exclaimed. “I’m ready; I’m _so ready_ to work cases again.”

“I think you are, too, but thinking you can go from reading books to deflecting electricity seems like a bit of a leap,” Baird told her. “Even for you.”

“It is. It was. You’re right,” Cassandra agreed.

“You just went through hell to extend your life expectancy, and now you have Stone, too,” Baird reminded her. “Don’t do that to him.”

“I wouldn’t want to do that to _any_ of us,” Cassandra said, including herself in that equation. “But especially not him. I just got a little overzealous, you know, first time back out.”

“Yeah. Now,” Baird said, her voice softening. She reached for Cassandra’s wounded arm. “Are you really alright?”

“Yeah, like you said, it’s superficial,” Cassandra said. “It’s just _bleeding_.”

Stone chose that moment to wander back into the Annex. “Jones and Flynn are looking for an elixir,” he grumbled.

Cassandra looked at Baird with pleading little girl eyes, and Baird nodded. “I’ll go find some bandages,” she said, leaving the new couple alone.

They looked longingly at each other for a few moments before they each sincerely apologized at the same time. Stone chuckled, and Cassandra grinned, and he made his way back over to her, grabbing a box of tissues on his way there. Stone gently grabbed her arm and started wiping away some of the blood.

“You were right,” Cassandra said softly. “I felt a little invincible being back out there today. There’s so much adrenaline in my body right now, I don’t even really feel this, which…isn’t helping.”

“You beat a brain tumor,” Stone said. “You should feel a little indestructible. And I know you’re plenty capable. I didn’t mean to say you weren’t. Hell, you’re better than all of us. It’s just…me and you, we just started, you know, and I saw that electricity comin’ at ya, and you weren’t movin’, and…”

“I know,” Cassandra replied. She placed a hand on his chest, realizing how terrifying that must have looked from his perspective. “I’ll be more careful. I promise.”

They held the other’s gaze for a few moments until Stone’s lips curved into a bit of a grin. “So, uh…did we just have our first fight?”

Cassandra thought about it for a moment and giggled as if she were excited by the new, albeit not-so-wonderful, relationship milestone they’d just hit. She grabbed his face and pulled him into a kiss, wrapping her good arm around his shoulders as it deepened.

In the doorway, Baird and Ezekiel stood, bandages in Baird’s hands. Baird looked a little spellbound, surprised at how quickly and effortlessly the argument had been forgotten between the happily embracing couple in front of her. Ezekiel, wily grin on his face, held up a finger.

“How come your fights with Flynn never end that easily?” he asked.

Baird resisted the urge to punch him and said, “Shut up, Jones.”


	4. The Amulet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The magical necklace Cassandra wears almost ruins her first time with Stone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hadn't really planned on doing a first time chapter since, in my head, it was just a lot like Chapter 2 of this story, but then I got to talking about Cassandra's magic amulet with Jamie (Struckk) and this was born from that conversation. I'm still not sure how I feel about this one, so I hope it's alright.
> 
> Thanks, as always, for all the comments! :)

After four months of seeing her through surgical recovery and a few weeks together as a couple, Stone had become pretty used to having Cassandra Cillian next to him in bed. What he wasn’t used to, after four months of seeing her through surgical recovery and a few weeks together as a couple, was having Cassandra Cillian next to him in _his_ bed.

Their date had taken them to his place after she had pointed out she’d never actually seen it before. They all knew where everyone else lived, but he was a private person, and he’d never invited any of them over. None of them had ever just shown up, either, and all the time he and Cassandra had spent together after her surgery had been at her apartment, so instead of driving her home after dinner, he’d taken her to his home.

Once they arrived, he’d stood back for a while and let her look around (it was only fair, after all), until he’d kissed her in the doorway to his bedroom. They had decided after that first night together to take a little while to learn themselves as a couple, make sure they worked, make sure everything worked with their team as a whole, before taking a step they couldn’t take back. Seeing her in _his_ home, for a change, in his _room_ , had stirred something within him, and he’d slowly started backing her up towards his bed.

“You comfortable?” he’d asked her between kisses, his arms wrapped tightly around her. He stood in place, knowing that if they moved any farther into his bedroom, they wouldn’t be stopping this time. “Here, I mean. We could go back to your place if you’d rather…”

Cassandra had cut him off with a sweet kiss to his lips, hands wrapped around either side of his face. She whispered, “Take me to bed,” against his mouth, and she hadn’t had to ask him twice.

Now, with their clothes strewn across his floor, she snoozed lightly on his mattress, bathed in the soft glow emanating from the light they’d left on in the other room.

Stone had always been a night owl, despite his long hours working the rigs in Oklahoma, indulging his interests in the dead of night when no one was around to catch him, and he wondered if she had always been one to go to sleep early or if that was a still-lingering effect of the surgery. He knew she often woke up in the middle of the night, her mind always calculating, even when she was supposed to be resting, but as he looked down at her from his reclined position against his pillows, he decided being up hours after she turned in wasn’t necessarily the worst thing.

She’d drifted off against his chest but rolled away in her sleep, and now, Cassandra slept beside him on her back, one arm draped across her body, the other bent up near her head. She was bare save for the navy blue covers around her middle and the amulet hanging around her neck, and Stone chuckled a little to himself as his eyes settled on the jewelry, thinking about how it had very nearly derailed their entire evening earlier that night.

He’d started kissing along her jaw line, crawling on top of her after both their shirts had been tossed to the floor. He’d moved his attention to her neck, slowly working his way down the column of soft skin, and she’d sighed in pleasure beneath him. When his chin ran into the beads that adorned the amulet’s chains, he’d simply moved around the necklace, slipped her bra strap off her shoulder, and attached his lips to the bare skin he found there. 

“Wait, wait…” Cassandra had muttered. “Go back.”

“I kinda…” Stone had muttered back. “Ran out of room.”

A momentary confusion had crossed her face until she realized what had been his impediment. “Oh,” she had said with a dismissing wave of her hand. “Take it off.”

“No,” he’d said immediately, sliding off of her. She had sat up, too, sliding the strap back up her shoulder, the mood temporarily ruined. “What? No! Are you crazy? I’m not takin’ that off of you.”

“Well, fine, I will,” she’d sighed, reaching underneath her hair to find the clasp.

“No,” Stone had repeated, grabbing her hand to stop her. He couldn’t believe she was even suggesting this idea.

“So you’re just never going to kiss my neck, because I don’t really like that option,” she’d said, a bit exasperated. She lightly chuckled as she reasoned, “Jacob, it’s okay. It’s annoying; I’ll just take it off for a little bit.”

“Is it more annoying than a brain tumor?” Stone had asked, perhaps a little too severely.

She hadn’t had a retort to that. She’d just looked a little taken aback and grown really quiet, lightly fingering the jewelry in question as she tilted her head down. Knowing he’d screwed up, he leaned over and kissed her forehead.

“I shouldn’a said that,” he said softly.

Her hair had fallen into her face, and she peeked at him through strands of red hair, almost waiting to see what he’d do next. He hadn’t said anything else, just raised himself to his knees on his mattress and grabbed her hand. She’d let him pull her to her knees across from him. One hand had cautiously wrapped around her body while the other had gently tilted her head up, giving him room to kiss her neck above the necklace, which he did as he’d muttered desperately, “See? I can kiss ya anywhere you want. Don’t…please, you don’t have to…”

“Okay,” Cassandra had whispered upon the slightly startling realization that the prospect of her removing the jewelry was _truly_ upsetting him. “I’m not gonna touch it, honey. I promise.”

Staring at it now, rising and falling with her chest as she slept peacefully, Stone was overcome with just how gorgeous the sight before him was. Jewelry in ancient civilizations had been a form of artistic expression; the Egyptians, like many others, liked theirs elaborate and ornamental, and while the original that Cassandra wore wasn’t as over-the-top as the ones that had often been produced for and buried with pharaohs and royalty, it wasn’t exactly simple, either. Six strands of once-vibrantly colored pottery beads, three on each side, held the symbol around her neck. The faded blue faience the symbol was crafted from was visible from the side of the necklace that rested against her skin. The front had been painted with black and white paints and outlined in a still luminous gold.

It didn’t look like much, really, but when Stone thought about what it was doing for the woman who wore it, a thought that he would never be able to get her jewelry as beautiful as that amulet crossed his mind. The necklace was dazzling, and so was Cassandra, and Cassandra in nothing _but_ that necklace might have, that night, in that peaceful moment, become his new favorite work of art. He reached his hand out to run his finger against the gold outline of the symbol. His finger was only about halfway through its journey when Cassandra’s eyes fluttered open, and Stone guiltily pulled his hand back.

“How the hell did that wake you up?” he wondered.

She sleepily pulled the blankets up around her chest and rolled her head against the pillow to look at him. “I can _feel_ you staring at me,” she told him, her voice groggy.

He chuckled. “Not you, not really,” he said. He ran his finger across the necklace again. “I was starin’ at that. Go back to sleep.”

Cassandra shook her head a little. “I think I’m awake now.”

“Awake enough to talk for a minute?” he asked. She nodded. His fingers were still on the amulet as he softly asked, “Is it worth it?”

“What do you mean?” she asked, matching his tone. She glanced down at his fingers.

 “We got that thing for ya without really thinkin’ about it or how you’d feel about wearin’ it all the time,” he explained. “So if you don’t think it’s worth it, if it’s really just annoying…you can take it off.”

“But earlier…” Cassandra started, her eyes growing wide in surprise at the conclusion he’d made while she was sleeping.

“I won’t get mad, sweetheart, I promise,” he said, cutting her off. “We don’t know that the tumor would come back. I was just thinkin’ earlier that if you took that off because of me, because of _that_ , and somethin’ happened to you…”

“No, I know. You don’t have to explain,” Cassandra whispered with a nod.

He was sitting up against his pillows, so she gathered the sheet around her body and climbed into his lap, bringing them face-to-face. She sat on his thighs, hands clutching the sheet against her chest and stomach. One of his hands came up to rest against her hip.

“When I had to take it off for that MRI a few weeks ago, I just laid there, listening to the machine clicking, thinking ‘what if, at some point during these 47 minutes, _this_ is the moment my brain cells choose to get all angry again,’” she admitted. “I’m scared, too. The amulet makes me less scared.”

“But I don’t want you to be uncomfortable,” Stone told her.

“I think I was just frustrated that your lips couldn’t get where I wanted them to go,” Cassandra confessed with a little laugh. With a small shrug she added, “Maybe I’ll take it off someday, but…not now. Not yet.”

He kissed her then, cupping his palms around her face. Her hands clutched his arms, and the sheet covering her body slipped, pooling around her hips. When their kiss ended, Stone pulled back and gazed at her, dropping his hands to her waist again.

“What?” Cassandra asked, suddenly a little self-conscious as his eyes traveled across her body.

“You look like one of them old paintings,” Stone muttered, his voice low and raspy. “Curled hair, sheets around your hips…that necklace danglin’ between your breasts...” His hands brushed the sides of her chest as he said, “You’re stunning.”

Cassandra smiled almost shyly and said, “Did you just compare me to a work of art?”

“I think I might’ve,” he replied, matching her grin.

“That’s high praise, coming from you,” she said. “Have you always thought I looked like a painting with this thing?”

“More so now when you’re wearin’ nothin’ but the amulet,” he said. She was chuckling and shaking her head, thinking she should’ve expected that answer, when he brushed some of her hair away from her face and added, “But yeah, maybe. Never really let myself admire you until tonight.”

Cassandra grinned at that statement, bashfully looking down and away from him for a moment, suddenly overcome with emotion. She took a breath as she met his eyes again and said, “Well, you sure know how to make a girl feel beautiful.”

Cassandra initiated the next kiss then; she leaned forward, throwing her arms around his shoulders and kissed him softly. Stone wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her flush against his chest, deepening the kiss. After a few kisses, Cassandra pulled away, trusting the hands on her waist to keep her steady as she reached for the drawer beside his bed.

“Again?” he asked with a grin, caressing her back as she sat up holding a foil wrapper in her hands. Cassandra just nodded with confidence, and Stone leaned in for another passionate kiss.

He could definitely get used to this.


	5. Cupcakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn interrupts a moment between our favorite couple with an opportunity for Cassandra...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments on the last chapter! You guys really are the best!
> 
> This one, since I didn't warn y'all last time, has a bit of a reappearance of Dad!Flynn. Enjoy :)

By the time Cassandra remembered to go give a proper good morning to the man she had left sleeping in her bed, it was rapidly approaching an hour that would no longer be considered _morning_. Having woken up at four AM, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, she’d abandoned her little apartment for the Library, where she’d spent the entire morning up to her elbows in magic books, deep in the stacks where no one could find her.

She found Stone sitting at a desk in the Annex, nose buried in a book of his own, and knocked lightly on the wall so as not to scare him. A grin instantly settled onto his face when he saw her.

“You snuck out on me this morning,” Stone said accusingly.

Cassandra cringed. “I know. I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“You can wake me up, you know,” Stone offered.

“And have a deep conversation with Mr. Grumpy Pants at four o’clock in the morning?” she countered. She playfully wrinkled up her nose and shook her head.

Stone chuckled, admitting defeat. “Alright, you got a point,” he agreed. “What have you been doing all morning?”

“Research,” she shrugged, wandering closer to him.

“Anything interesting?” he asked.

She paused for just a moment, not quite ready to tell him exactly what she’d been up to in the Library all morning. Thinking quickly, she formulated a response that she knew wouldn’t prompt any further questions. The next thing out of Cassandra’s mouth was a string of mathematical terms so complex and said so quickly that Stone couldn’t be sure she was still speaking English.

He chuckled again, her answer far beyond his expertise, and reached out to grab her hand. He pulled her into his lap, wrapping his arms around her as she settled on his thigh, her arms around his neck.

“Mornin’,” Stone muttered.

Cassandra grinned and lightly massaged the back of his neck. “Hi,” she replied.

They met in the middle for a sweet good morning kiss. A little moan escaped Cassandra’s throat, despite the chaste nature of the kiss, and Stone chuckled lightly. He pulled back just a bit, and Cassandra rested her forehead on his.

“Was that because of the kiss or because you’re smellin’ cupcakes again?” he asked.

“Is it weird if I say a bit of both?” Cassandra replied.

“Completely,” Stone muttered, leaning in for another kiss.

He hadn’t meant to turn his good morning kiss into making out in the Annex, but with no one else around, one kiss turned into three, and soon, they were cuddled in his desk chair, his hands on her back and curled around her knee, hers in his hair as they kissed.

Flynn Carsen appeared in the doorway separating the Annex from the hall, looking for his favorite little Librarian. When he found her curled up in the chair with Stone, an unconscious frown settled on his face. He had always liked Stone, and he even liked Stone and Cassandra together, but that being said, Flynn wasn’t exactly sorry for what he was about to do.

He took a few strides into the Annex and broke up the happy couple with an exclamation of, “Cassandra! Up and at ‘em; it’s go time!”

Never one to miss an adventure, Cassandra tore herself away from Stone and excitedly hopped to her feet. “Ooh, where are we going?” she asked.

“Grab your coat; we are going to Croatia,” Flynn announced. He began setting up the Back Door to their destination and said, “Actually, don’t grab your coat. You don’t need a coat. It’s still quite warm there.”

“What’re we doing in Croatia?” Stone asking, bringing himself to his feet as well.

“Oh, no, not we,” Flynn said, gesturing to the three of them. He waved his hand between himself and Cassandra and said, “Just _we_. I only need her. Sorry, Stone.”

Flynn turned back to the globe as a disgruntled look colored the cowboy’s face. Cassandra, looking rather amused, turned to place a small kiss on her boyfriend’s mouth.

“Don’t miss me too much,” she said.

“Shall we?” Flynn asked, pulling the door open.

“Let’s do it!” Cassandra exclaimed, running through the Back Door without even asking what they were doing.

Baird wandered in from the kitchen, coffee mug in hand, just as the door was slamming shut behind Flynn. “Where the hell does he think he’s going?” she asked.

“He took Cassandra, _only_ Cassandra, to Croatia,” Stone grumbled.

Baird made a mental note to both tease Flynn about taking Cassandra on a father-daughter mission and scold him for running off alone; she then noticed Stone’s demeanor and asked, “Why are you so grumpy?”

“Besides the fact that I don’t really like the idea of them two being out there without someone to keep them from doing somethin’ stupid?” Stone said. Baird nodded in agreement. “Cassie and me were kinda…in the middle of somethin’,” Stone finished with a mutter.

Upon hearing Flynn had interrupted something intimate, Baird couldn’t help herself and started laughing. Suddenly, everything made sense. Stone’s face hardened even further upon her reaction. “Why’s that so funny?” Stone asked, following a still-chuckling Baird out of the room.

Halfway around the world, in Croatia, the Back Door deposited Flynn and Cassandra in a coastal town, right near the beach. They took a moment to get their bearings before Flynn pointed them in the right direction.

“So what kind of a case requires _only_ me?” Cassandra asked with interest.

“The kind of case that’s not really a case,” Flynn answered immediately.

“I’m not sure I’m following,” Cassandra said.

“We are not here on a case,” Flynn told her. “We are off to see a wizard!”

“Wh – like the Wizard of Oz?” Cassandra asked.

“Oh, heavens, no, he hasn’t been seen for a least a century,” Flynn said casually.

Cassandra’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head. “What?” she squeaked. “The Wizard of Oz is…” She looked towards the sky, a dreamy smile on her face as Flynn rambled, completely oblivious that what she’d just said.

“I said we were going to see _a_ wizard, not _the_ wizard,” Flynn continued. “He’s not even really a real wizard. He’s wizard- _ish_ , well-versed in magic, and since the definition of a wizard is…”

“Flynn,” Cassandra said, interrupting him.

“I’m sorry; is this helping?” Flynn asked her.

“I don’t know what _this_ is,” Cassandra said.

“Yes, of course!” Flynn said. “You need some guidance, some magical guidance, and since I personally can’t give you the kind of help you need, I think I’ve found someone who can, hence the wizard title that may or may not be befitting to the man we are about to see. Are you interested?”

Cassandra stared at him befuddled for a moment before her face broke into a grin at the opportunity Flynn was offering her. She nodded a little, still surprised by what they were doing, and asked, “Why are you doing this?”

“Because those books will never be the same again,” he said with an attempted critical glare.

The week before, Cassandra had been in the Library, looking for a particular art book Stone had asked her to grab before she returned to the Annex. She knew nothing about art, except for the fact that its books were classified in the 700s section of the Dewey Decimal System; she’d never even ventured into the arts sections of the Library before, so she ran her fingers across the spines of the books as she scanned the unfamiliar titles, looking for her prize. Flynn had startled her, scaring her to death, and she had inadvertently turned the covers of the books beneath her fingers a bright violet color (because seven is violet, after all.) She had tried to change them back, but her efforts, thus far, had failed.

“I’m _sorry_ ,” Cassandra moaned for what felt like the hundredth time. “I didn’t mean to do that. You scared me, and it just _happened_ , and…”

“I know,” Flynn said kindly. “It’s _magic_ ; there are going to be some mishaps. Let’s try to manage them.”

Cassandra face broke into a grin again. “You know, when I try to talk to Colonel Baird about magic, she just tells me not to do magic.”

“Well, what Eve doesn’t know can’t hurt her,” Flynn replied.

“She doesn’t know we’re here?” Cassandra asked.

“This is our thing,” Flynn shrugged. “I don’t see any need to tell Mom. Agreed?”

“Agreed,” Cassandra nodded.

“One more thing while we’re alone,” Flynn started. “About your relationship with Mr. Stone…”

Cassandra laughed. “You have _nothing_ to worry about there; I promise.”

When Flynn didn’t say anything else, when he was seemingly going to accept that answer, Cassandra touched his arm to halt both of them in their tracks, leaned over, and kissed his cheek. Flynn’s eyes met hers, surprised by the gesture.

“But don’t stop worrying about me, okay?” Cassandra said softly. “It’s nice to have people who worry about me.”

Flynn smiled fondly at the cheerful redhead next to him and waved them on to continue towards their destination. They had an appointment with a wizard to keep.

Hours later, the Back Door rumbled, depositing Flynn and Cassandra back into the Annex. Stone and Baird both sat at desks in the large room, Stone still researching while Baird worked on paperwork. Both of them did a bit of a double-take upon taking in their significant others’ appearances. Stone’s brow furrowed, and Baird’s eyes widened in concern.

Cassandra’s hands were curled up near her chest; Stone could see them shaking from across the room. Flynn and Cassandra’s clothes, hair, and skin were splattered with sand and Croatian sea mud. Flynn’s hair was a mess on top of his head, and Cassandra’s lay in flattened, frizzy ringlets around her face, making it obvious that they had been soaking wet at one point, and Stone, from his place at his desk, wondered what kind of case Flynn had taken her on because despite all of that, Cassandra was utterly beaming, smiling a smile that covered her entire face, and Flynn, seemingly more energized than ever, looked at her with pride.

 “What the hell?” Stone finally asked.

“Should’ve let me come with you…” Baird said in an almost sing-song voice, turning back to her paperwork. They were both alive and outwardly well. She’d press Flynn for details later.

“Nonsense! Cassandra and I are more than capable!” Flynn sputtered. He turned to Cassandra. “I’m going to go find that book. Excuse me!”

Flynn ran off into the main Library, mud and all, before Baird could ask any questions, while Cassandra stayed in place near the Back Door, breathing steadily as she came down from her elated high. Stone kept his eyes on her in concern.

“Are you okay?” Stone asked her.

“Yeah,” she answered immediately. “Yes, I uh…” Cassandra walked away from the Back Door, heading towards the exit, stopping between Stone and Baird’s desks. “I’m just…gonna go home and shower and…try to salvage this outfit,” Cassandra finished, glancing down at her body with a frown.

“Have a good night,” Baird told her, not expecting the younger girl to return.

Stone kept his eyes on her until she disappeared into the hallway. When he thought she was gone, he turned back to his book, making a mental note to call her later that evening and make sure she was okay. A few seconds later, he felt the damp sleeves that covered her arms curl around his shoulders from behind. His eyes drifted down to her hands against his chest as her cool lips pressed a firm kiss to his cheek. He felt mud from her wet hair smear across his chin as it swung from her sudden movements, but he didn’t really care. He couldn’t see her, but he swore he could almost _feel_ the impish grin against his skin.

“I think I might need help washing all this mud out of my hair,” Cassandra whispered low in his ear, so only Stone could hear. She caught his ear lobe briefly between her teeth before she added, “Know anyone who could help me with that?”

Wordlessly, Stone dropped a bookmark into the pages he had been perusing and stood, grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair as Cassandra giggled softly. If secret, seemingly wild cases with Flynn were going to yield these results, Stone thought, he could take her on as many as he wanted. Placing a hand on her lower back, Stone guided her out of Annex’s main room. Baird looked up from her paperwork again as they headed out, and they passed Ezekiel under the archway that led to the hall.

“Where are you guys going?” Ezekiel asked. “What the hell happened to Cassandra?”

“I’m fine. Just got a craving for cupcakes,” Cassandra giggled, twirling around in Stone’s arm to meet Ezekiel’s gaze. She walked backwards for a few steps as she spoke before twirling back around, welcoming Stone’s warm hand on her back.

“Cake sounds awesome,” Ezekiel said. “Can I come?”

“ _No_!” Cassandra and Stone replied simultaneously.

“Alright, sheesh,” Ezekiel muttered, wandering in towards Baird. “Why would they go out with Cassandra looking like…they’re not going to get cupcakes, are they?”

“Nothing gets past you, Jones!” Baird replied sarcastically.

After a beat, Ezekiel asked, “But why _cupcakes_?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to know,” Baird answered. “Do me a favor and don’t tell Flynn if he comes back in here looking for her.”

“Sure thing,” Ezekiel agreed. Baird nodded in appreciation, then held back a laugh as Ezekiel wandered over to his own desk, muttering, “There’s a dessert I’ll never be able to eat again…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And this is the last one I have written, so updates might be...not as regular from this point forward, lol. Thanks for reading!


	6. How You Get the Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The brain tumor might be a thing of the past, but Cassandra sometimes still uses it to get her way...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is a silly little fluff-filled chapter born out of a combination of Jamie's headcanon that Cassandra is a huge Taylor Swift fan and my venturing to the 1989 World Tour last night. It's about twice as long as a normal chapter for this story, but you don't need to be a Swift fan to read/enjoy this.
> 
> Happy premiere night, LiTs!

Early on in their relationship, when their romance was just a few weeks old, Stone and Cassandra had spent a quiet afternoon off in Jacob’s living room. He had taken up residence at his corner desk, working on his latest article on his laptop, while Cassandra had stretched out across the couch with hers.

“Come on, come on…” Cassandra had muttered from the couch.

Stone lifted his head from his research and turned to look at her. Her brow was furrowed as her finger navigated the mouse across the screen. He thought she had been doing nothing in particular over there, so he asked, “What’s wrong, darlin’?”

“Oh, nothing,” Cassandra had sighed. “They’re all sold out.”

She didn’t offer any more details, so Stone turned back to his work. A few minutes later, Cassandra leapt up from the couch, racing down the hallway to Stone’s bedroom. She returned with her purse, fishing her credit card from her wallet. He silently watched with puzzlement and a bit of worry until Cassandra threw her hands into the air in triumph.

“ _Yes_!” she squealed when the transaction had presumably gone through.

“What happened?” Stone asked.

“I just got two tickets to the 1989 Tour in Tampa,” she said with excitement.

“What’s that?” Stone asked.

“Taylor Swift!” Cassandra answered. “And it’s on Halloween; how cool is that?”

Stone snorted. “Who’s that other ticket for? ‘Cause it sure as hell ain’t gonna be me,” he said.

Cassandra’s face fell. “Wh – why not?” she asked.

“Are you kiddin’? I can’t go to that concert,” he said.

“Oh, come on. Lyrics are like poems, and these are love songs. It’s right up your alley,” Cassandra protested.

“Love songs written by a teenage girl,” he shot back.

“Well, not these,” Cassandra said. “She’s older now.”

“You don’t think it’d be a little creepy for a grown man to be at a Taylor Swift show without a teenage niece or somethin’?” Stone asked.

“Not if you’re with your _girlfriend_ ,” Cassandra replied without hesitation.

“Take Baird,” Stone said.

“Right, because she wouldn’t shoot me for merely _suggesting_ that,” Cassandra said with a sad sigh. She put her credit card back in its place and picked up her laptop to check for the confirmation email, not looking at him as she said, “I’ll just go alone. I’ve never been to a concert before, not really. I tried to go to one when I was 16. I snuck out with a friend; it was the _one_ scandalous thing I ever did, but I had to leave about two songs into the show because the lights and the noise made my head hurt too badly to stay.”

Stone, sensing where this was going, dropped his pen onto his notebook and turned his chair fully around to face her with an unamused glare.

“But now, you know,” Cassandra continued. “No more brain grape, so I could probably handle a concert. I guess I should’ve asked you first, but I’ve always wanted to see her, and we have the Back Door, so we could go _anywhere_ , so when I _actually_ found tickets to her _last_ US show, I just thought the stars were aligning or something and now was finally my chance.”

Stone sighed, knowing he would have to go if _that_ was the reason behind her spontaneous purchase, and Cassandra finally turned her head and tilted her eyes up to meet his. She gave him a small, hopeful smile.

“You gotta stop doin’ that,” he said accusingly.

“What?” she asked with false innocence.

“You just pulled the tumor card on me,” he said.

“It’s a good card,” Cassandra smiled. Her smile faded a bit as she added, “It’s also all true. Does that mean you’ll go?”

Stone grumbled, “Jones can never _ever_ find out about this.”

Cassandra clapped her hands and deposited the laptop back onto the couch to run over and give her boyfriend a kiss. “Thank you,” she said happily, his face in her hands. “It’ll be fun; I promise.”

On Halloween morning, the morning of the show, when Stone was awakened at 7:30 by an overly excited Cassandra twirling around in front of her bedroom mirror, singing what he could only assume was a Taylor Swift song, a plethora of skirts and dresses piled at the foot of the bed, he was pretty sure it _would not_ be fun. At the very least, he was going to have a very long day.

“ _Cassie_ ,” he groaned, wiping his hands over his face. She let out a little gasp and turned to face him, her eyes wide.

“Sorry,” she said. She tried to look remorseful, but a smile she couldn’t help lit up her whole face.

“Can you go be excited in the living room?” he mumbled.

She just nodded and ran out of the bedroom, leaving her clothes on the bed for later. Stone rolled over, thinking he was about to get a few more hours of sleep, when the sounds of actual music spilled down the hallway. He groaned again. A very long day, indeed.

Luckily, thanks to the three hour time difference between their home city and the concert stadium, they didn’t have too long to wait. Stone, admittedly, didn’t know much about the artist they were going across the country to see, but they played her on his country music stations, so he wore his cowboy hat on his head, thinking it appropriate for the event. Cassandra finally appeared in a white circle skirt covered in roses, tights, red glitter shoes, and a tank top. His ears barely registered her plans to buy a tour t-shirt as she pulled him out the door.

When they arrived at the Annex, Cassandra grabbed Jenkins, leading him from his lab to the main room, where Baird and Flynn stood clustered around Flynn’s desk.

“Miss Cillian, I am capable of walking on my own,” Jenkins said as the redhead nearly dragged him over to the globe.

“Fire up the Back Door; we can’t be late!” she exclaimed.

“Destination?” Jenkins asked.

“Tampa!” she answered in a voice so loud, Baird and Flynn both looked a little startled. “Anywhere within walking distance to the stadium is fine.”

“What’s in Tampa?” Baird asked.

“Don’t ask,” Stone grumbled.

Cassandra shot him a look as Baird said, “Alright, well, have Cassandra back before curfew. It’s a school night.” She looked at Flynn. “Midnight good with you?”

“Yes, that seems acceptable,” Flynn replied, playing along.

Cassandra and even Jenkins grinned a little at the obvious joke while Stone said, “It ain’t a school night. It’s Saturday.”

“And I was _kidding_ ,” Baird said, her attempts at getting the man to grin failing. “Seriously, what’s in Tampa?”

“Seriously, don’t ask,” Stone grumbled again.

Jenkins pulled the Back Door open, and Cassandra grabbed Stone’s hand, waving a goodbye to the others in the Annex before disappearing with Stone through the portal to Florida. Jenkins shut the door behind them and retreated to his lab.

“What are you doing?” Flynn asked as he noticed Baird beside him, typing into her phone.

“Finding out what’s in Tampa,” she shrugged. She typed _Tampa stadium tonight_ into her search bar and pressed enter. When the result came up, she began laughing. When Flynn asked what it was, she passed her phone to him, still laughing, and said, “He’s a good boyfriend.”

“Does that mean I should be taking you to…” Flynn asked, pointing at the phone.

“ _No_ ,” Baird replied before he could finish.

“Alright, just checking,” Flynn said.

When Stone and Cassandra arrived at the football stadium in Tampa, they found themselves in a mess of people ( _women_ , Stone noted) in a wide variety of outfits and costumes. When the employee at the gate scanned the tickets Cassandra had gleefully picked up from the will-call booth, he made a crack about how she’d let her boyfriend dress up by himself. Stone looked at her, confused, as she took two white bracelets from the girl handing them out just inside the gate.

“Your cowboy hat,” Cassandra giggled. “They think it’s a Halloween costume.”

“It looks like a costume?” Stone asked.

“I think it looks sexy,” Cassandra shrugged as she boarded the first escalator to take them up the stadium seating. He followed behind her with a bashful grin.

Their seats were in the 300-level, the highest section in the stadium. They were on an aisle a few rows up. Cassandra pointed to their seats and took hers, retrieving her new tour shirt from its bag. As she pulled it over her head, Stone looked around.

“ _This_ is what you were so excited about? Sweetheart, these seats ain’t even good,” he said, looking down at the stage. The view wasn’t _bad_ , exactly, but he knew she’d probably only really be able to see Taylor on the screens surrounding the stage.

“I bought them only two months ago. What did you expect?” Cassandra asked. She then insisted, “I’m in the room; that’s all that matters. Are you going to sit?”

“I’m going to find a beer,” he muttered.

After he left her alone, she pulled out the white bracelet she’d gotten at the gate. Everyone attending the tour received one of the bracelets that would glow and flash in time with the music during the show. Cassandra had read about them and watched a few videos online, so she excitedly ripped the little plastic battery tab out of hers and pulled the stretchy band onto her wrist. The bracelet started furiously blinking colors as soon as it touched her skin – blues, purples, greens, and pinks – and Cassandra laughed with excitement.

Then she looked around at the people around her. It was still early; the crowd was still fairly sparse, but almost everyone already there was wearing their bracelets, too. Nobody else’s bracelets were lighting up yet. Realizing hers was magically feeding off of the uncontrollable excitement she felt, she hurriedly ripped the bracelet off her wrist before anyone could notice.

Stone returned, a beer in one hand and a water bottle for her in the other, to find her staring at the bracelet. “Aren’t you gonna wear that?” he asked, taking his seat.

“Oh,” Cassandra said, meeting his gaze. She shrugged, “When the show starts. Here.” She tried to hand him his bracelet.

“I ain’t wearin’ that,” he insisted.

“It’s part of the show; it’s gonna light up and stuff,” she said.

“Well, that sounds neat, but you can keep it,” he said. “Then you have one for each hand.”

When the lights went out after the second opening act, signaling the impending arrival of the music superstar, Cassandra leapt to her feet and started cheering with the other fifty-six thousand people in the stadium. Stone begrudgingly stood, too. It was the respectful thing to do. A few beats into the first song, the bracelets around the stadium came to life with a flash of white. Cassandra pulled one on each wrist, and they luckily behaved as they were supposed to, as the crowd went wild again. Stone watched the stadium, transfixed by the beautiful effect of the lights on the wrists of fifty-six thousand dancing people. It was like living art, and he lightly slapped Cassandra’s arm.

“Hey,” he said, leaning over to her. “Give me the bracelet back.”

“What? No, you gave it to me,” Cassandra said as she stopped dancing.

“Well, I didn’t know it did _that_!” Stone said. Cassandra rolled her eyes and smugly handed over one of the bracelets. Stone slipped it onto his own wrist and said, “Don’t look at me like that.”

“You’re _enjoying_ this,” she said with a haughty tone.

“I am not,” he insisted.

“You are enjoying this, and we’re only on the first song,” she teased.

“Well, this is pretty wild,” he said, holding up his wrist. “How’s this work?”

“Hello, _concert_ ,” she huffed. She kissed his cheek and said, “I’ll explain it later.”

It didn’t take long for Stone to understand why people seemed to think his cowboy hat was a Halloween costume. He’d put it on, and he’d held onto hope that the show wouldn’t be _complete_ torture because Taylor Swift – she was country, right? Well, that first song definitely wasn’t country. The second one wasn’t, either. By the third, he was slowly putting together why his country radio stations hadn’t seemed to have any new music from her in recent years.

He leaned over again, nearly getting hit in the face as Cassandra bounced up and down to the music, and said, “I thought she was a country artist.”

Cassandra shook her head. “This album was all pop.”

“So it’s gonna be like this all night?” he asked.

Cassandra smiled and nodded yes, dancing along with the music again. Stone groaned and took a long drink from his new beer.

The music did nothing for him, but the redhead next to him was having the time of her life. She knew almost every lyric to every song, though she was definitely in the majority, as the crowd around him was singing so loudly, he almost couldn’t even hear the girl on stage. It was moments like this when Stone loved watching Cassandra. Moments that couldn’t have happened before, moments that she might have never had, moments that were only possible because they’d somehow, against all odds, found a way to get that tumor out of her head. Watching her unabashedly dance and sing at the concert was like watching her do complicated math without fear of pain, and he found his eyes flittering back and forth between her and the lights in the crowd.

Her energy was infectious, and when he offered his hand to her during a catchy song called “How You Get the Girl,” he didn’t think it was possible for her to smile any brighter, but she did, and he danced with her throughout the rest of the song (a fact he would vehemently deny later, should anyone ask.) When the song ended, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him in for a kiss on the mouth.

Later, when Taylor Swift came out dressed like Olaf from _Frozen_ , Stone laughed and looked to Cassandra to see if she’d remember. Cassandra was too busy singing the song Taylor was singing, though she looked amused at the costume. When Idina Menzel was introduced as the night’s surprise guest and she walked out dressed like Queen Elsa from the same movie, the stadium erupted into screams, Stone erupted into laughter, and Cassandra grabbed his arm.

“What’s so funny? What’s happening?” Cassandra asked as the song began.

“ _Frozen_ ,” he said. “We watched this in Seattle a few days after the surgery.”

“We did?” Cassandra asked. “Oh, the ice princess, right?”

Stone nodded. “I thought it’d be easy for ya to follow, but halfway through, you were convinced that snowman there was that princess’s true love.”

“ _What_?” Cassandra exclaimed.

She dissolved into giggles then, too, finally able to laugh at how much that post-surgery medicine had messed with her head. Yet when the women on stage hit the chorus and the bracelets glowed blue, it all clicked, and Cassandra was right back to singing the words with the rest of the crowd. Stone just shook his head in disbelief.

Near the end of the show, while Taylor played a slow song on the piano, Stone grabbed Cassandra and pulled her into his arms, her back against his chest. Cassandra stopped singing and turned her head towards him. He leaned down to give her his ear.

“You okay?” she asked.

“It can’t be that bad if you’re this happy,” he admitted in her ear.

She grinned and turned to face him, letting her hand slide slowly down his back. “I’ll maybe make it up to you when we get home,” she promised with a small shrug and a teasing twinkle in her eye.

“Now I’m better than okay,” he said, shooting her a wink.

He was going to lean in for another kiss, but then the song ended, and she was cheering again. She turned to him and plucked his cowboy hat off his head, placing it on her own as she slid back over to her seat. With a wink of her own, he just grinned and ruffled his hair. The hat looked pretty sexy on her, too.

When the show finally ended, Stone and Cassandra walked hand-in-hand to where they’d left the Back Door, Cassandra on a bit of a dreamy high that only comes with having a long-time wish fulfilled. Much to Stone’s dismay, the Annex was not empty when they returned. Instead, Ezekiel Jones stood at the table, eating Halloween candy out of a purple pumpkin. That wouldn’t be a big deal, except Cassandra was still wearing her 1989 World Tour t-shirt, and her 1989 World Tour bracelet was again magically blinking furiously on her wrist, and Stone was still wearing his bracelet, too, leaving no question as to where they’d been on their Halloween date.

A few moments passed where all three Librarians simply stared at one another in surprise. Cassandra retained her deer-in-the-headlights look as a scowl crossed Stone’s face and Ezekiel’s lips curved into a mischievous grin.

“So when Cassandra says jump, you really just ask how high, huh, mate?” Ezekiel said with a laugh. The scowl on Stone’s face grew harder as Cassandra shot the young man a look.

“How about you just pretend you didn’t see this?” Stone asked.

“Not a chance in hell,” Ezekiel replied, making a mental note to look up song lyrics to torture him with later.

Cassandra shot him another look as she grabbed Stone’s arm and pulled him towards the door, ready to head home. Ezekiel’s laughter followed them out, and Cassandra lovingly laced her fingers through Stone’s before he could get too angry.

“Thank you, honey,” she said sweetly. “For tonight.”

“Well, ya didn’t leave me much choice, pullin’ the tumor card,” Stone replied.

“It’s a good card,” Cassandra repeated with a wicked grin of her own.

“You can play it twice a year. That’s it,” Stone decided. “You don’t got it anymore, and we both know it ain’t comin’ back.”

“Did tonight count as number one for the year?” Cassandra asked, still too happy to protest his new rule.

“You bet your pretty little ass it did,” Stone said, finally putting the cowboy hat back on his own head. He was thinking that it should really count as both number one _and_ number two for the year as he shot her a grin of his own. “Now, I believe I remember somethin’ about makin’ it up to me…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments will make my weekend even better than it already is :)


	7. Say Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra has a heartbreaking reaction to three little words Jacob says to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'm sorry. Because it's been a month since I updated this, and I never intended to go that long.
> 
> Secondly, this is Day 2 of 25 Days of Jassandra, so...happy holidays! Have some feels :) Title taken from the song by A Great Big World.

He hadn’t meant for it to happen that way.

He had been ready to tell her for a little while, and he’d felt it even longer, but the romantic in him believed the first time a man told a woman he loved her should be accompanied by a big moment, a romantic gesture, and Jacob Stone, the man who knew his particular girlfriend hadn’t had a lot of love in her life, wanted his moment, _their_ moment, to be something special. He had still been working on the when and how, but he had been envisioning cooking her dinner, whispering it in her ear as they cuddled on the couch, and then, if luck was on his side, carrying her to bed as she whispered the words back to him between soft kisses.

Instead, he blurted it out on a case, in the heat of the moment, with everyone around to hear. Cassandra’s face had paled, her blue eyes turning to saucers in the 2.8 seconds that elapsed between his declaration and her getting whisked away to divert the day’s disaster. Her startled reaction, the only one he’d gotten before she’d been torn away from him, had him questioning whether or not he should’ve said it at all, whether it had still been too soon, but by the end of the day, he’d ultimately decided not to take it back because, even though that was the absolute _last_ way he ever wanted to tell her he loved her, he meant every word.

Two and half days had passed since the admission slipped from his lips. Cassandra had said about as many words to him since, beyond the words that were required to do their jobs and stay alive in the process. She had claimed a headache that first night, asking to be alone, and Stone gave in to her request, even though he thought she’d probably only said it because she knew, tumor or no, it was still the one thing he wouldn’t fight. She’d danced around him the second day, scurrying down an aisle of books or taking the long way around if her path was about to divert with his, and she’d snuck home without so much as a word of goodbye. He’d sent her a text to make sure she was alright; she’d promised him she was fine, and he’d let it go.

By the afternoon of the third day since Jacob Stone declared his love for Cassandra Cillian, Ezekiel Jones had _had it_ with their awkward interactions and new inability to be in the same room with one another, let alone work together. He almost couldn’t believe he’d found a version of them worse than the mushy, all-over-each-other Stone and Cassandra, but he thought this week, whatever was happening between them, was _definitely_ worse, for reasons more than the simple fact that he was finding himself sympathizing with _Stone_ , of all people. He sat in the Main Room with Cassandra, facing the doorway, playing a game on his phone. Cassandra was at a desk to his right, reading quietly. Movement caught Ezekiel’s eye and he glanced up just in time to see Stone heading down the hallway.

Ezekiel checked his watch and realized it was lunch time. Stone was probably heading for the kitchen. Perfect.

“Hey, Cassandra,” Ezekiel said. “You should go get me a soda.”

Cassandra glanced up at him, an _are you kidding me_ look on her face. “And why would I do that?” she asked.

“Because you’re the nice one,” Ezekiel said, his eyes never leaving his phone.

Cassandra snickered and turned back to her book. “Get it yourself,” she said, as if determined to prove him wrong.

“And why would I do that?” he mocked her.

With a roll of her eyes, she folded her arms over her book and sighed. “Because you are fully capable of getting it yourself, and I am in the middle of something,” she said frustratingly.

Ezekiel held up his phone. “Uh, yeah, me, too. Obviously.”

Cassandra, deciding it would be easier to just humor him, groaned, rolled her eyes again, and stood up, stomping her way towards the kitchen with her arms folded across her chest. When she entered the room, she faltered a bit when she saw Stone making a sandwich at the counter.

“Oh, umm…” she stuttered as his eyes met her. She cast her gaze towards the floor as she mumbled, “Ezekiel wants a soda.”

Stone didn’t know what to say to her, so he chose to say nothing at all, settling for a simple nod in response. Cassandra made her way to the fridge, grabbed a can for each of them, and headed back the way she’d came, only to find a locked door.

“What?” she said to herself as the doorknob wouldn’t give. She tried it again, and again, she couldn’t get out. Cassandra glanced over as Stone made his way to the table with his lunch, and she put two and two together. She slammed her hand against the door. “Are you kidding me?” she yelled.

“What?” Stone asked, genuinely confused at his girlfriend’s outburst.

A faint, proud chuckle came from the other side of the door. “ _Ezekiel Jones_ , you open this door _right now_!” Cassandra yelled, stomping her foot for emphasis.

“ _What_?” Stone asked again, a little more urgently this time.

“He locked us in!” Cassandra cried. Stone stood from the table and wandered over to try the door himself. Cassandra looked a little offended. “What? You didn’t believe me?”

“No, it’s not that I didn’t…” Stone started. Then his hand slammed against the door, too, partially because of Ezekiel’s trick and partially out of frustration with _her_. “Damn it, Jones!”

“How long are you going to leave us in here?” Cassandra cried, shaking the door.

“Oh, I don’t know, as it long as it takes,” Ezekiel called back, a cavalier tone to his voice.

Cassandra sighed, turned around, and let her back fall against the door. Stone stayed in place next to her. After a few moments, Cassandra’s eyes found his. When she didn’t say anything, Stone shrugged.

“We gonna talk about it?” he asked.

“We don’t really have much of a choice, do we?” she groaned. Cassandra pushed herself from the door and headed to the other side of the room.

Neither wanting to start the awkward conversation, silence hung in the air as Cassandra paced around the kitchen island, chewing on the fingertip of her thumb, while Stone stayed near the door, his lunch lying forgotten on the table. When he couldn’t take it anymore, he crashed his hand hard and heavy against the tabletop. He almost felt bad when she looked a little startled.

“ _Damn it_ , Cassandra, I…” he started. Stone sighed, took a moment to calm down, and walked over to the other side of the island. “I told you I _love_ you,” he said in a softer voice.

Cassandra froze, her eyes locked on his again. Her finger dropped from her mouth, curled into her fist, and hovered over her chest. “I heard,” she said.

“You _heard_?” Stone replied, anger bubbling within him again “That’s…that’s really all you got to say to that?”

“Well, I…I just…I didn’t really think we were…” she stuttered, her hands twirling around nervously in front of her.

“You didn’t think we were _what_?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said almost desperately, as if she really didn’t know what she was going to say. She thought about it for a moment and finally offered, “That serious?”

“Bullshit,” Stone muttered, pounding the counter in frustration again. Cassandra flinched.

“Okay, I get that you’re angry, but could you stop doing that?” she asked.

Outside the kitchen, Colonel Baird had been walking by on her way to the Main Room. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Ezekiel, sitting against one side of the kitchen door frame, his knees bent, his arms on his knees. His head was slightly tilted towards the shut door. Curious, Baird approached.

As she crept closer to the kitchen door, she could hear the raised voices inside. _Oh_ , she thought. She’d spent the past two days wanting to help but not being sure how, so she’d stood back, knowing it would all come to a head sooner or later. She’d just hoped her team would still be intact when it was all over.

“What are you doing?” she asked, leaning down towards her youngest charge.

Ezekiel grinned up at her with a guilty smile. “Waiting…for the microwave?” he asked.

“You shouldn’t be listening to this, Jones,” Baird said.

“I disagree,” Ezekiel said. “Contrary to popular belief, I kind of like the little team we’ve assembled here, and if _those two_ are gonna blow it all up, I think I have a right to listen.”

“How did this even start?” she whispered.

“I locked them in!” Ezekiel stated with about as much frustration as they could hear from the occupants of the kitchen.

Baird tried; she really did, but it didn’t take long for her lips to lose the fight and curl into a small, amused grin. With a tilt of her head, a gentle gesture of approval, she stepped over to the other side of the door frame and sunk down to the floor.

“When has this _ever_ not been serious? We started with _brain surgery_ , for cryin’ out loud,” Stone exclaimed from the kitchen. He moved around the island, and Cassandra moved, too, keeping their distance. “Look, if you don’t want to do this, if you don’t want to be with me anymore, just tell me. Don’t play these games.”

“That’s not what I want!” Cassandra said quickly. “That’s not…I just…maybe…we just maybe need to slow down a bit, that’s all.”

Stone scoffed. “Says the girl who almost _cried_ when I didn’t wanna spend the night on Day One,” he sneered.

If he weren’t so angry, he might’ve noticed that the girl in front of him was almost crying then, too. Instead, he missed the hurt look on her face when she quietly said, “That’s not fair.”

“Of course it’s fair,” Stone sneered. “Where is this comin’ from, Cassandra?”

“You caught me off guard the other day,” she admitted. “I…I usually end things before it gets to…what you said.”

“ _Why_ would you want to end this right when it’s gettin’ _really_ good?” he asked.

“I _don’t_!” Cassandra groaned. “I don’t want that. I just...” Tears started rolling down her face as she cried, “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Do _what_?” Stone asked, his voice softening as she started to cry.

“I don’t know how to have a relationship where I’m not _dying_!” Cassandra yelled.

Outside, Baird let out a little sympathetic sigh, Cassandra’s reaction to Stone’s declaration finally making a little bit of sense to her. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back into the door frame. After a second, she glanced at Ezekiel. He was already looking at her, the expression on his face finally illustrating a bit of guilt for forcing the couple to talk.

Inside the kitchen, Stone had nearly been stunned into silence. Cassandra stood across from him crying, and he didn’t know what to do. His instinct was to go to her, to hold her, to wipe the tears off her face, but he was still _so angry_ about the past two and a half days that he found himself unable to move. Still, that was the last thing he’d expected to hear from her lips.

“ _What_?” he finally asked.

“I don’t know how to be okay with you loving me,” Cassandra cried, the pace of her speech increasing. “I don’t know how to let myself love _you_. Love means everyone gets hurts when I die. How can I let somebody love me when I’m dying? That’s not fair; that’s not fair to anyone.”

“You ain’t dying anymore,” Stone said. The livid wall within him was beginning to crumble, but an inescapable part of him felt like she was playing the tumor card again to get out of owning up to her awful reaction, and that small part of him only served to enrage him further.

“I know, but I’ve never had a relationship where I wasn’t, and I still don’t know…” Cassandra said. Thinking she was beginning to sound like a broken, defenseless record, and knowing he could probably never understand, she trailed off, letting the sounds of her sobs fill the silence.

“I don’t really know what I’m doing, either, you know?” Stone huffed. Cassandra looked at him with wide eyes. She wiped her cheeks quickly and started chewing on her finger again. “I’ve never been in a relationship where I wasn’t hidin’ who I really am. You’re the first one who’s ever known the real me.”

“ _Really_?” she sighed. Deep down, she had already known that was true, but hearing him say it made her heart ache for him, too.

“I mean, I know that’s a whole different rodeo, but mine always had expiration dates, too, and now, if our thing goes south, I can’t brush it off as being because you didn’t really know me,” Stone explained.

Cassandra thought about what he’d said for a moment and dropped her hand again. She took a deep breath, her tears subsiding. “We’re not so different, are we?” she asked softly.

“No,” Stone said, matching her tone. His lips curved into a small smile. “No, we ain’t.”

The two slowly wandered around the kitchen island until they were just a few steps away from one another. Cassandra instinctively began to reach for his hand but pulled back and smoothed out her skirt instead. He pretended not to notice.

“Jacob,” she said kindly. “I want you to know that…if we break up, it certainly won’t be because of _who you are_.”

Stone took another step towards her and grinned again. “Well, that’s nice to hear, but Cassie…if we can make it through today…I don’t think we’re gonna break up.”

Cassandra grew quiet then, taking another slow, deep breath, and Stone worried that might have been too bold of a statement for such a fragile conversation. He was about to say something else to make it better when she gently grabbed his hand.

“I don’t think we’re going to break up, either,” Cassandra softly admitted. “But that’s…that’s _why_...”

She trailed off again, not wanting to cry, and Stone squeezed her hand for just a moment before letting it fall and cupping her face in his palms. The tender gesture had her tearing up again despite her best efforts, and he used the pad of his thumb to brush away a tear as it slipped out of her eye.

“Cassandra,” he whispered. “Do you love me?”

Her breathing quickened, coming out in shaky breaths. “I…” she started.

“Don’t think about what it might mean. Just tell me what you feel,” Stone said. He caressed her cheeks and said again, “Do you love me?”

She was quiet again, and Stone thought her face was about to crumble into another round of overwhelmed, frustrated tears. Instead, she opened her mouth and sighed, “ _Yes_ ,” clutching his sides as she felt a little light on her feet.

“Then why are you about to cry again?” he whispered.

“Because I’m scared,” she admitted.

“Remember the last time you told me you were scared?” he asked.

Cassandra nodded. “Yeah,” she said, suddenly transported back to the hospital bed in Seattle where she clutched his hand, waiting for a surgeon to take her away from them. “In the hospital.”

“I told you it was gonna be alright,” he reminded her. “And I was right, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah,” Cassandra said again, nodding just as she had done before. “But I was still scared.”

“You survived brain surgery, sweetheart,” he said. “Don’t be scared of bein’ in love.”

Cassandra leaned in and kissed him then, quick and soft and sweet, and her arms wrapped around Stone’s strong body. He hugged her tightly, ridding them of the space that still remained between them. She turned her face away from him and rested her head on his shoulder, sighing as she relaxed into his embrace. She would apologize later – for running, for ignoring his feelings, for being _so_ petrified – but for now, Cassandra liked the suddenly peaceful silence and the feel of his arms bound so securely around her. He rocked her gently, swaying just a little, and softly kissed her hair, cradling the back of her head in his palm.

After a few more minutes of simply holding one another, Stone glanced towards the door. “You can let us out now, Jones!” he called.

Cassandra chuckled with a small sniffle. She picked her head up just enough to wipe her face with her hand, making sure all her tears were gone. It was only a few seconds before the door swung open and Ezekiel entered.

“Thank _god_ ,” he muttered, heading for the fridge. “You know, I actually _wanted_ that soda.”

He was in and out of the kitchen without a word about the couple or what he had surely just heard go down in that kitchen, and Cassandra shook her head a little in disbelief as they realized Ezekiel hadn’t been alone.

“Colonel Baird,” Cassandra said. She was still wrapped in Stone’s arms, her head resting slightly against his. Baird smiled at them.

“You guys okay?” Baird asked.

Cassandra and Stone looked at each other. Uncertainty crossed Cassandra’s features, despite her cozy position in his embrace, and Stone caressed her cheek.

“Yeah, yeah; we’re good,” he said to Baird. Baird nodded and slowly slipped out of the kitchen, leaving the couple alone.

“We’re good?” Cassandra asked.

“Let’s talk a little more later,” Stone said. Cassandra nodded, her face falling slightly. Stone grabbed her chin and placed another small, reassuring kiss on her lips. “But yeah, sweetheart, I got ya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I'll try to make the next one happier ;)


	8. Oklahoma, Part I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra gets to meet Jacob's sister and niece when they return to his home in Oklahoma for an old friend's wedding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And again, I did not intend for it to take me a month to update this. 25 Days of Jassandra took over my December. Happy New Year, LiTs!

They were going to a wedding. The invitation from one of his oldest friends had arrived in Stone’s email just a few weeks before ( _“Things move fast in a small town sometimes, darlin’_ ,” he’d said), and it was addressed to Jacob Stone _and guest_ , so he was taking Cassandra home.

His plan had been to get a hotel and avoid his family entirely. He hadn’t seen much of them since he’d become a Librarian, and his father sure as hell wasn’t happy with him, and he wasn’t ready to subject Cassandra to that just yet, so his plan had been to introduce her to some friends, attend the ceremony, and get out of there, but, of course, his sister Jessica had other ideas. When she found out her little brother was coming home _and bringing a girl with him_ , Jessica insisted they stay with her; she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Stone was sitting on Cassandra’s bed, watching and helping as she packed for the short trip. She was just about ready to zip her small suitcase shut when Stone pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Cassandra. She looked at it and found a boarding pass for a flight to Oklahoma with her name on it.

“Uhh…honey, what is this?” Cassandra asked.

“Boardin’ pass,” he muttered as if that were obvious.

Cassandra chuckled. “I haven’t been on a plane since…well, since Baird and I flew home from the surgery, but before that…I think it was our first Library trip,” she said. “Why are we _flying_?”

“My sister insisted on picking us up from the airport, alright? And Jess ain’t a pick-you-up-at-the-curb type; she’s the stand-five-damn-feet-outside-of-security type, so what was I supposed to do?” Stone replied.

“We could’ve tried to set the Back Door to the terminal side of security,” Cassandra shrugged. “It’s gotten much more precise as it’s been in more frequent use.”

Stone stayed still on her bed, staring at her for a few seconds. “I didn’t even think of that,” he finally admitted.

Cassandra laughed again and playfully shook her head. “And they say you have an IQ of 190…” she teased.

“I’m _nervous_ , okay?” Stone exclaimed. “Soon as Jess found out I wasn’t comin’ to this wedding alone, she insisted I stay with her _harder_ , and that ain’t ever a good sign.”

Cassandra just giggled again, overcome with how suddenly cute he was, and grabbed one of his hands with hers, leaning in for a soft peck on his lips. “Speaking of…who am I supposed to be? Your girlfriend, obviously, but…”

“You’re Cassie,” he said. “The librarian from Portland.”

“But that’s the _truth_ ,” she said. “We’re telling her the truth?”

“A modified version of the truth,” he admitted. “I didn’t want you to lie about who you are, too.”

“So if you’re bringing a girl from Portland and flying in from Portland, does she know you live here?” Cassandra asked. Last she’d heard, his family still thought he was in Texas.

“Yeah,” Stone admitted.

“And she’s okay with that?” Cassandra asked. “You said your father didn’t take you leaving well, so I just kind of assumed…”

“Yeah, well, Jess is a little on the outs with him, too,” Stone admitted. “Her husband started drinking pretty heavy when their baby was little. Jess finally told him to get sober or get out because her daughter wasn’t gonna grow up in the kinda house she did. He picked ‘get out.’ Pop thinks she blew up her family for no good reason.”

Cassandra scoffed in disbelief and rolled her eyes. “So you and your sister have bonded over being mutual disappointments?” she asked.

Stone chuckled. “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “And besides, she thinks the whole Portland thing is sweet ‘cause I told her I moved here for you.”

Cassandra, with a blushing little grin, asked, “And what are you doing here in Portland besides being in love with me?”

He grinned, too. That word was still new to them, but it always sounded so good slipping from her lips, but then he sighed. “I don’t know,” he admitted.

“And how did we meet?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said again.

“Well, shouldn’t you…?” she started.

“I got a 1900 mile plane trip to figure it out, alright?” he said. “Let’s go.”

On the plane, Stone let Cassandra have the window seat. Neither of them had done much flying in their lives, and while Stone was less than thrilled with it, Cassandra was always enthralled, staring out the window at the world below her. She glanced over at her boyfriend; he was quiet, _so quiet_ , and seemed lost in thought. She slipped her hand into his and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He smiled at her in thanks.

They were met on the other side of airport security by Jessica and Jessica’s six-year-old daughter Annabelle. There were cries of “Uncle Jacob!” and hugs all around before he got a moment to introduce Cassandra. Once he did, Jess hugged her, too, surprising the redhead, and Annabelle took Jacob’s hand, leading them to the family’s car. The group of four went to dinner at a restaurant near the airport, far enough out of town that everyone who walked in wouldn’t recognize the long-lost Jacob Stone.

“You’ve become quite the town legend, you know?” Jess laughed. She had a southern accent thicker than Stone’s, hints of aqua blue in her brown hair, and a spirit bright enough to light up a dark room. “Get into a bar fight with _ninjas_ and are never to be heard from again…what the heck was that about, Jake? Is any of that even true?”

“Come on, you know the truth ain’t ever close to the story you hear after it’s been told a thousand times,” he shrugged. “But you know that bar…somethin’ different every night.”

“But you did kinda fall off the face of the earth, so then to show up back here with _Cassandra_ ,” Jess said. Off of Cassandra’s startled look, she added, “Oh, no, honey, you’re different in a good way. _Trust me_.”

Cassandra stifled a laugh and shot an amused glance in Stone’s direction. He turned a little red, and Cassandra pretended not to notice. As she turned back to her meal, she noticed the six-year-old little girl on the other side of the table staring at her. With a small frown of discomfort, Cassandra looked down at her plate.

“So how’d that happen anyways?” Jess asked.

“Me and Cassie?” Jake asked. “Oh…well…we were, uh…”

It seemed that plane ride hadn’t done him much good, so Cassandra knew she’d have to jump in. “The hotel, remember?” she said. “You were working on that oil refinery in…”

“Texas,” Stone grinned, eager to see where this was heading.

“Yes!” Cassandra said. “And I was there for an American Library Association conference, and we ended up in the same hotel.”

Stone sat next to Cassandra, his smile growing as she told Jessica all about how bumping into each other turned into talking and taking walks arm-in-arm around the hotel and watching movies in one of their rooms. He was marveling over how convincing she was, how it didn’t at all sound like a lie, when Cassandra said, “And by Day Four, we were having lunch at the little café down the street!” and Stone realized she was telling Jess about their week in the Seattle hotel, with a few details tweaked or left out, of course.

“And that was it?” Jess asked with a dreamy sigh. Cassandra grinned again. Being a romantic seemed to run in the family.

“Not quite that fast,” Cassandra said. “It took us a few months to really get there, but yeah…in a way, I think we both knew that was it.”

The couple shared another loving smile, and Stone couldn’t help but place a small kiss on Cassandra’s mouth. Jess started raving about how adorable they were, and Cassandra noticed the little girl staring at her again.

“But what are you _doing_ there, Jake?” Jess asked. “Not a lot of oil refineries up that way.”

“No, there ain’t,” Stone said. Cassandra glanced at him, knowing he probably hadn’t come up with a lie for that, either, during the plane ride, but he covered well enough, saying, “I’m findin’ my place in that world. Doing a little bit of everything, really.”

Cassandra looked over again and found Annabelle still staring at her. She understood; she was a stranger, and she probably didn’t look like most of the girls in Oklahoma, but it still made her uncomfortable, so she gently nudged Jacob’s side. He looked at her, and Cassandra used her eyes to gesture towards his niece. He leaned a little over the table, addressing the girl who sat diagonal to him.

“She’s real pretty, ain’t she?” Jacob said, choosing not to explicitly call out the girl for staring. Annabelle’s eyes grew wide.

“What?” Jess asked.

“Annabelle’s starin’ at my girl, and I’m just sayin’ I don’t blame her because I like staring at her, too,” he said, eliciting a small chuckle from Cassandra.

“Wh – Annabelle, stop starin’ at Cassandra,” Jess said.

“Her hair’s crooked,” Annabelle said.

Jess immediately looked mortified and hissed, “ _Annabelle_!”

Annabelle looked at her mother and cried, “But _it is_!”

“Annabelle, it’s not nice to stare, and it’s even more not nice to say things like that,” Jess said. She turned to Cassandra and said, “I’m so sorry.”

Cassandra’s hand had immediately flown to clutch her red locks, but she shook her head. “It’s okay,” she promised. She looked at Stone and quietly said, “Can I, um…can I tell her? Is that…age appropriate? I’m not sure.”

“It’s your head, darlin’,” Stone said. His accent was growing thicker by the minute, and they’d only just arrived. “Tell ‘em whatever you want.”

Cassandra nodded and looked at the little girl. “I, um…my hair’s crooked because I had surgery. Do you know what that means?” she asked.

“Like Operation?” Annabelle asked.

It took Cassandra a moment, but she finally replied, “Oh, the game. Yes, like Operation! Only for real, and some of my hair was in the doctors’ way, so they had to cut it. It wasn’t really that long ago, so it’s still growing back.”

Stone watched everyone’s reactions carefully. Jess had frozen in place, her fork halfway to her mouth, and Stone frowned a little before checking on his niece. She, unlike her fearful mother, just looked fascinated.

“You had surgery on your _head_?” Annabelle asked. Cassandra nodded. “That sounds scary.”

Cassandra laughed. “It was,” she said. She grabbed Stone’s hand and added, “It was really scary, but your uncle was there the whole time, and that helped me feel better.”

Annabelle grinned, seemingly liking the romance behind that answer, and looked at Jess. “Can we get dessert?”

Cassandra laughed in relief, and Stone squeezed her hand. She glanced at him, and he shot her a wink to let her know she handled that perfectly. She smiled and reached for the dessert menu. “Dessert sounds _great_ ,” she agreed.

* * *

When they arrived at Jessica’s house, she unlocked the door, and Annabelle ran inside, calling, “Oreo! Come meet Cassie!”

Cassandra looked at Stone as he pulled the suitcases out of Jessica’s trunk. “Cat,” he said. Cassandra’s face lit up and he grinned. “Go on, I got these.”

Stone wandered up the front steps, a suitcase in each hand, when Jessica shut the front door in front of them and grabbed Stone’s arm. Stone’s face furrowed in confusion.

“ _Brain surgery_?” Jess asked.

“Yeah,” Stone said, putting the suitcases down on the concrete steps. “Yeah, ‘bout…last spring.”

“What happened?” Jessica asked. “An accident or…?”

“She had a tumor,” Stone said. Jess made a face as if to say she’d been afraid of that answer, and he quickly said, “The surgeon got it all. She was amazin’, that woman, and Cassie’s fine now.”

“Oh, Jacob…” Jess sighed. “Be careful. Do you know what you’re doing here?”

“Are you seriously suggestin’ I shouldn’t be with Cassandra because of a tumor that ain’t even there anymore?” Stone asked, his blood beginning to boil.

Jess could sense he was getting angry and said, “It’s just when Mama died, you were…you took it really hard, Jake, harder than any of us, and I can tell you really love this girl, and if she’s not okay…”

“She is,” Stone said. “She wasn’t, but she is now, so it’s okay. _She’s okay_ , Jess; I promise.”

Jessica sighed as if to say she still had her worries, but she trusted her little brother. “I can fix her hair,” she offered.

“What?” he asked.

“It’s kind of what I do, remember?” Jessica said. “We can go down to the salon, and I’ll fix it for free. She’ll probably lose a bit of length, so maybe that’s why she hasn’t done anything with it, but if she wants, I can blend it in, make it less noticeable, enough that _rude children_ like my daughter won’t be starin’.”

Stone chuckled. “Let’s ask her.”

Cassandra decided to take her up on that offer, so she and Jess left for Jessica’s little downtown salon. Jacob stayed home to play with Annabelle and Oreo. When they’d been gone for longer than he deemed appropriate, Stone picked up his cell phone and called his sister.

“ _Yes_?” Jess answered with a huff. “You’re on speaker phone, by the way.”

“What are you doing to her that’s taking this long?” Stone asked. “She’s not going to come back with blue hair like you, is she?”

“No, honey, I knew you’d think it was creepy if my hair matched my eyes, so we went with purple instead,” Cassandra replied in a teasing tone.

“You better be kiddin’,” Stone replied.

“Would pink have been better?” Cassandra asked seriously.

“ _Jessica_!” Stone replied. He was met with the sounds of two girls giggling on the other end of the line.

“Oh, calm down, Jake,” Jess said in a way only an older sister could.

“Seriously, what’s taking so long?” Stone asked.

“Well, it takes a long time to talk about you!” Cassandra replied. More giggles filled the line before Jess bid him a goodbye and hung up.

 When the girls finally arrived back at Jessica’s house, Stone let out a little sigh of relief when Cassandra walked in with her normal red hair. It was shorter and layered, the longest curls just barely falling past her shoulders. Cassandra caught his eye and did a little spin in the foyer.

“Well?” she asked, a little nervously.

“You look beautiful, Cassie,” he said honestly.

Cassandra smiled, and Jessica, who was closer to him, lovingly hit him upside the head, again, only as an older sister could. He cried out and rubbed the wound.

“That’s for doubting my abilities,” Jessica said. She grabbed his arm and loudly whispered, “And _I love her_!”

Stone stole a glance at Cassandra, who was happily checking out her new look in a nearby mirror. She felt him staring at her, as she usually did, and sent a smile in the siblings’ direction. He pat Jess’s hand that still rested on his arm and said, “I think that feeling’s mutual.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be set directly after this one, part II of their little Oklahoma trip. Thanks for reading!


	9. Oklahoma, Part II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stone and Cassandra meet up with some of Stone's old Oklahoma buddies. He may think family isn't easy, but sometimes friends aren't, either.

“Cassandra!” Stone hollered up the stairs for the third time in the past fifteen minutes.

“I’m here; I’m ready. Let’s go meet your… _what_ is so funny?” Cassandra said, jogging downstairs. She paused at the base of the stairs, her hands on her hips.

Stone was laughing so hard, he thought he might need to sit down. They were heading to a sports bar and grill in his hometown to meet his friends the night before the wedding. He was wearing his typical jeans, button-down, cowboy boots and hat. Cassandra appeared in tiny denim shorts, a black, white, and purple plaid blouse, and cowboy boots of her own. Her red hair had been styled into short pigtails decorated with matching purple ribbons. Paint some freckles on her cheeks and take the Egyptian necklace from around her neck, and she’d look like the redheaded Country Western Barbie.

“What the hell’re you wearin’?” he laughed.

“Wh-isn’t this what I’m supposed to wear?” she asked with a sigh.

“Where on earth did you get that idea?” he asked. “It ain’t like there’s a uniform.”

“I might’ve Googled or something,” Cassandra muttered bashfully. Stone chuckled again. “Well, I’ve never been to a place like this before, and I want your old friends to like me, and…”

“And I want them to meet you looking like _you_ ,” he said. “Though, between you and me, darlin’, you look hot.”

“I do?” she asked with a smile. That wasn’t a word he used often.

“Mm-hmm,” he hummed. Stone wrapped his arms around her and slipped his hands into the back pockets of her tight shorts, something he never got to do with the skirts she always wore.

“You sure you don’t want me to go out like this, then?” she asked. He leaned in a little, and she lowered her voice to a whisper. “You can show me off a little, if you want.”

He squeezed her ass, pulling her into his body, and her hands landed on his chest. “Oh, I ain’t taking you out like that,” he said in a low, husky voice. “One of the guys will try to steal ya from me when they get a look at those legs.”

“Well, we wouldn’t want that,” Cassandra whispered.

Stone kissed her then, wasting no time in brushing his tongue against hers. Cassandra sighed, and he squeezed her ass through the short denim shorts again. She squeaked a little in surprise, and he grinned against her lips. He walked backwards as he kissed her, pulling her with him, and sat down when the back of his legs hit the couch. Stone pulled her into his lap, one of her legs on either side of him, and found her lips again as his hands slid back into her pockets. Her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, he pulled her hips in closer, the friction causing both of them to break their kiss on low moans, and Cassandra’s eyes slipped open as she caught her breath. She rapidly glanced around at their surroundings as Stone’s lips touched her neck, and she gasped.

“Jake…Jacob…” she mumbled. “Your sister…she’s…”

“Outside,” Stone finished, the realization crossing his face. “She’s right outside. With Annabelle.” He swore under his breath, and Cassandra caressed his cheeks.

“Sorry,” she whispered.

“No, no, we gotta stop,” Stone said, his hands still in her back pockets. “It’s just…these shorts, Cassie.”

Cassandra giggled. “Yeah?” she asked. She pulled the cowboy hat off his head and placed it on her own. She raised her eyebrows at him, silently asking for his opinion. Stone’s forehead fell against hers.

“You’re tryin’ to kill me,” he breathed.

She chuckled again and gave him one last lingering kiss. “I’m going to go change,” she said, climbing off of him. “ _You_ stay here, or else we’re definitely going to be late.”

Cassandra returned just a few minutes later. She’d kept the blouse and the boots but swapped the shorts for a pleated black skirt and added white knee socks and a silver horse pin to her collar; her hair hung loose around her shoulders. Stone grabbed the keys to Jess’s car, and they headed out to the restaurant. They had barely made it in the door when a man’s voice called for them.

“Jacob Stone, as I live and breathe!” a cowboy across the room called. Stone nodded, grabbed Cassandra’s hand, and led her over to them.

“Landon,” he whispered to Cassandra. “The groom.” She nodded.

They met the group in the large corner booth, and Stone shook Landon’s hand. Introductions were made all around. The group consisted of Landon, his bride, and four other friends from Stone’s past life. Stone and Cassandra slid onto the end of the circular booth, and Stone instantly draped his arm around her shoulders. A glimpse at his face told her he was nervous about being home, about being around these people when so much had changed, so she squeezed his knee sympathetically in support.

* * *

When dinner had begun winding down, Cassandra had wandered off to the bar to grab herself and Stone another drink. He didn’t notice how long she’d been gone until one of the other guys, Nate, glanced across the room, a weird look on his face.

“Jake, what the hell’s your girl doing over there?” Nate asked.

Stone turned around to find Cassandra sitting at the bars, eyes focused in front of her. She would look like she was staring up at the televisions, if it weren’t for the slender fingers dancing in the thin air around her face. Stone quickly stood.

“She’s probably, uh…probably just readin’ something on the TV. I’ll go check on her,” he stuttered. He walked over to the bar and grabbed her arm. “ _Cassie_!”

“Oh, Jacob!” she gasped, as if seeing him were the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. “Do you have any cash on you? I only had, like, 57 dollars.”

“What do you need more than 57 dollars for?” he asked.

“I’m betting on that horse,” she said firmly, pointing at the television.

“Which horse?” he asked.

“The one in the green.”

“That one with the really not-so-great odds?” he asked skeptically.

Cassandra shook her head, her hands waving furiously in front of her, her betting time running out. “No, I know, but that horse is going to win.”

“How do you know that?” he asked.

“Oh, they’ve been recapping past races and the practice runs, so I just calculated the average rate of acceleration for each horse, and…”

She trailed off as Landon and Nate came up behind Stone, and Stone’s face visibly hardened. Message received; he didn’t want her talking about this in front of them.

“I just have a feeling, okay, honey?” she said, switching gears, her voice instinctively higher, which elicited an entirely different look of disdain from Stone. “Come on! Before it starts!”

Stone handed her a fifty from his own wallet, and she slammed it to the bar, telling the bookie to add it to her total. Stone’s friends saw which horse she was betting on.

“Jake, man, you gonna let her do that?” Landon asked.

“I…trust her,” Stone said, looking at Cassandra. She grinned, and he shot her a wink.

The race began a few minutes later, and Cassandra’s horse started off performing exactly as the odds suggested he might. Stone frowned.

“Cassandra,” he said, almost accusingly.

“No, wait, look, he’s gaining a place at a rate of…while the others are slowing…” she started. She caught her boyfriend’s glare again and stopped talking. She held her fingers to her chest, her eyes focusing back and forth between the numbers in front of her and the action on the television as she whispered to herself, “Four…three…two…”

When she hit one, her horse took first place mere seconds before he crossed the finish line. Cassandra cheered while Stone’s friends looked a little dumbfounded.

“How did she…how the hell’d you do that?” Landon asked.

“Oh, it’s easy. I just analyzed the statistics they provided from the past…” she started. She caught herself again upon looking at Stone. “I don’t know!” she shrugged, her voice high again. “Just kinda picked the name I liked. Guess I got lucky!”

She hopped down off the bar stool to collect her winnings, shooting her boyfriend a weird look as she walked by. Stone turned around and found Landon and Nate still staring in disbelief.

“She likes math,” Stone shrugged.

“But them probabilities weren’t in her favor,” Nate pointed out.

“I don’t know, man. You know all that academic stuff’s way above my head,” Stone replied with a forced chuckle.

* * *

Cassandra knew it had been a bit of a hard night for him, but when she returned from the restroom about an hour later, she noticed Stone was beginning to _look_ a little rough, too. He was sitting at the table with his former buddies, and despite the early hour, he looked worn out. She quietly snuck up behind him and grabbed his arm on its way back down to the table from rubbing his temple.

“Hey cowboy, come dance with me,” she said in a sexy voice. He shot his friends a goofy grin as if to say he had no choice, but once they were on the dance floor, Cassandra nearly sighed at how incredibly close he held her. She slipped her hand just beneath his hat, enough to tenderly thread her fingers through his hair, and asked, “Are you alright?”

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” Stone sighed.

“For what?” she asked with a small, sad smile.

“I said I didn’t want you to lie ‘bout who you are, and I stopped ya every time you started talking about math,” he said.

“It’s okay; I…I shouldn’t have done that. I just got caught up, and…” Cassandra said.

“No. You’ve been perfect tonight, Cassie, and I made you act like an idiot, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said, massaging his neck. “I understand.”

“You do?” he asked.

“Well…no, but it’s not my place,” she said honestly. “Really, are you alright?”

He caressed her cheek, letting his eyes adore her for a moment. Sometimes he was so in love with her all he could do was look at her. When he finally spoke, he said, “Yeah, baby, it’s just…being back here and pretendin’ to be this guy again…after everything we’ve done…after I found someone who loves the real me...”

Cassandra nodded and knew, upon his use of the pet name he only ever used when someone was upset or when they were intimate, that it was time to call it a night.

“Let’s go,” she said. He glanced at the watch on his wrist.

“It’s barely past dark,” he noted.

“Tell them I have a headache,” she offered.

“You have a headache?” he asked, his hand instinctively coming up to cradle her head.

“No,” she said with a devious grin. “But they don’t know that.”

A few minutes and a few goodbyes later, they were walking out of the bar, hand-in-hand. They reached his sister’s car, and, before he could open the door for her, he pressed her against the side and gave her a deep kiss. Cassandra hummed as he sucked on her lip and wrapped her arms around him.

“What was that for?” she whispered as he finally let her go.

“Thank you,” he muttered. “For letting me use you as an excuse to get out of there.”

She chuckled. “Anytime,” she said with another quick peck to his lips.

“Detour before we get home?” he proposed, opening the door for her.

“Okay,” Cassandra grinned.

* * *

When they walked into the door of Jess’s home twenty minutes later, Cassandra was rolling her eyes and shaking her head in playful disbelief.

“You told me we were going to one of your favorite places from high school,” she said.

“We did!” Stone protested, taking a big bite out of the ice cream sundae in his hands.

“Sonic?” Cassandra asked, taking a drink from her Styrofoam cup. “One of your favorite places was _Sonic_?”

“School’d get out right in the middle of happy hour! It was always a race to get there before the parkin’ spots filled up,” he said. Cassandra popped a tater tot into her mouth and stared at him. “You’ve seen this town, darlin’. There ain’t much to it.”

“So you were a cheap date in high school; that’s what you’re telling me,” Cassandra teased, sucking on her slush again.

“ _Jacob Stone, are you kidding me_?” Jessica called across the room. Her arms were crossed against her chest, her face stern. The Librarians in the foyer looked at her like they’d just been caught coming home way past curfew. “I’m trying to get my hyped up daughter to come inside and go to bed, and you walk in here with _ice cream and tater tots_? What did I ever do to you?”

Cassandra snorted with laughter, and even Stone’s lips curled into a grin. “Do you want us to leave again?” Stone asked.

“Just get upstairs!” Jess ordered. “Before Annabelle sees.” Stone and Cassandra looked at each other, thoroughly entertained, and Jess stomped her foot. “ _Go_!” she said.

 Stone and Cassandra took off, jogging quickly up the stairs to their guest bedroom, and, as the melodious sounds of Cassandra’s giggles filled his ears, Stone decided the night hadn’t turned out so badly after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Review? ;-)


	10. Payback

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A realization about Cassandra makes Stone's sick day worse than it already is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm soooooo sorry I've kind of completely neglected this story lately. It kind of got away from me. Hopefully I can get back on track. Never intended to go this long without an update, so I hope some of you out there are still reading :)

Cassandra always thought men fell into one of two categories when sick. There were the men who didn’t want help and insisted they were fine, and then there were the men that turned into complete and utter babies.

Her father had fallen into the former category, running out the door with his briefcase, an impeccably tied tie, and whatever illness had befallen him that time, not even a minute off schedule. On those days, he’d always be home by the time Cassandra got home from school, still working from his bed or the couch, and still refusing help. The surgical intern she’d grown close to at the hospital in New York, however, had undoubtedly fallen into the latter category. Whenever he was feeling under the weather, she would find him curled up in closets, on-call rooms, or even random corners as she worked her shift. Sometimes she’d bring him soup from her friend in the cafeteria; sometimes she’d simply mop the floors and roll her eyes as he whined behind her while she worked. 

She wasn’t sure, years later, which category her boyfriend would fall into, but one look at him after the sounds of his deep cough roused her from her sleep told her she was about to find out. Cassandra had no idea how he’d managed to go to bed perfectly fine and wake up so noticeably sick, but there was no denying that Jacob Stone was in no shape to save the world.

It took twenty minutes of bickering for her to convince him to take the day off (he was _fine_ , he insisted), and he loudly protested when she decided to stay home and take care of him, too (“You don’t got to do that,” he’d said. “I don’t need help,”) so she thought she had enough evidence to conclude that Stone was a man who fell into the same category as her father when sick.

She didn’t expect him to switch classifications halfway through the day.

They had planned on going back to sleep – him, out of necessity, and her, to take advantage of the unexpected morning off – but he had refused to sleep next to her any longer, insisting he didn’t want her to get sick, too. Her protests fell on deaf ears, and Stone had wandered out to the couch, leaving the bed for Cassandra.

She woke up again an hour later to the sounds of Stone calling her name from the living room. Cassandra hurried out of bed, rushing to make sure he was alright. Her face hardened into a glare when he told her what he wanted.

“The _remote_?” she asked, thoroughly unamused. “The remote _right_ _there_ on the table?”

“I can’t reach that!” Stone protested.

Cassandra audibly sighed, rolled her eyes towards the ceiling, and made her way over to the couch. She liked the idea of getting to take care of him for once, but he’d just awakened her to get him a remote three inches out of his reach, so she thought she was justified in being a little cranky. She handed him the device and stayed in place by the couch, her arms crossed.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he grumbled. “It was your decision to stay here to take care of me.”

“This is my payback,” Cassandra muttered in realization.

“For what?” he asked.

“For throwing that cup of pills at your head in Seattle when you and Baird woke me up to take them,” she said, nodding to herself in confirmation of her hypothesis.

“You threw ‘em at the wall,” he said, rolling onto his side on the couch.

“Oh, good,” Cassandra said casually. “I’m glad that’s what that looked like.”

After a beat, Stone’s brow furrowed, and he glanced up at his girlfriend. “Wait, what?”

“Nothing!” she chirped. She smiled, turned on her heel back towards the bedroom, and said, “Enjoy your TV.”

Stone frowned as she scurried back to the bedroom, but he was too weak to go after her, so he flipped on the television and sunk into the pillow beneath his head.

A few hours later, he woke up to the sounds and smells of lunch being made in the kitchen one room over. The television had been turned off, and a blanket had been thrown over his body. Despite the blanket and the obviously warmer atmosphere in the apartment, he still felt cold, so he tucked the blanket in around himself and called out Cassandra’s name.

“Oh! I’ll be right there!” she called from the other room, the surprise at hearing his voice evident in hers.

Cassandra came into his line of vision just a few minutes later, a bowl of steaming soup in her hands and a pack of crackers in the crook of her elbow. She had changed out of the winter pajamas she’d been in that morning and was now strutting around the apartment in a thin camisole and a pair of Stone’s boxer shorts, the band rolled to keep them in place around her slender waist. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to sit up enough to eat the soup in her hands, but he couldn’t help himself from staring as she made her way towards him.

“What?” she asked, stopping near the edge of the couch.

Stone reluctantly dragged his eyes up to meet hers. “What?” he repeated, his voice hoarse.

“You’re staring at me,” she said.

“You’re…nice to stare at, dressed like that,” he said. He let his eyes fall down her body again, and hers widened in response.

“You’re _sick_!” Cassandra said accusingly.

Stone chuckled, which turned into a cough. When it subsided, he said, “I still got eyes!”

With a slight grin and a playful roll of her eyes, she sat down on the edge of the couch near his chest and encouraged him to sit up. She grabbed a spoon and dipped it into the soup, and he jokingly asked if she was planning on feeding him.

“Well, I wouldn’t want you to have to move ten whole inches to get the spoon to your mouth,” Cassandra teased.

He let her feed him for just a couple bites before pride got the better of him, and he sat up next to her, swinging his legs off the side of the couch and taking the bowl from her hands. Without missing a beat, Cassandra slipped her hand behind his body and underneath his shirt, tenderly rubbing his back.

“You’re being awfully attentive for someone who was so irritated a few hours ago,” Stone muttered. Cassandra chuckled.

“Well, you took care of me for months, so I’m sorry you’re sick, but it’s kind of nice to get to return the favor,” she admitted.

“You don’t owe us nothin’ for that,” he replied.

“Yeah, I do,” Cassandra said softly. “That was a big thing and a big job, and it shouldn’t have been up to you. It should’ve been my parents doing that, but…I knew they wouldn’t, so…”

 “You know, you’ve never really told me anything about them,” he said as she trailed off.

She smiled sadly; he was right. She pointed to the bowl of soup in his hands and said, “Eat. I’ll tell you all about them when you’re done.”

Cassandra wandered off to clean up the kitchen and grab a bite to eat of her own. When she returned, Stone was laying on the couch again, underneath the blanket, flipping through the channels on the TV. She caressed the side of his feverish face and asked if he was going back to sleep. Stone grabbed her hand and shook his head.

“You were gonna tell me a story,” he reminded her. Her face fell, and he nodded. “You were hopin’ I’d go to sleep and forget.”

“No, I just…I thought about it, and…” she stuttered.

“You don’t have to tell me,” he said, dropping her hand.

“I’m afraid I might cry,” she softly admitted. “And then you’ll try to comfort me, and I’m supposed to be taking care of you today.”

Stone leaned up, pulled her down to sit on the couch, and laid his head in her lap. Their hands found each other again, as her other went instantly to his hair.

“Tell me,” he asked, matching her hushed tone.

Cassandra took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay,” she agreed.

As she told him a more detailed version of the same sad story she’d given Baird and Flynn a few weeks after her operation, Cassandra thought she could almost feel him getting worse as time went on. He was listening, she knew, but he pulled the blanket on and off as she spoke, and a pained look crossed his face every time he fidgeted in her lap or moved to show her a little bit of affection.

“Aww, honey,” she finally sighed. “What can I do?”

“Nothin’,” he muttered. “Everything just hurts.”

“Why don’t you take a bath? That’ll help the aches,” Cassandra offered. Stone scoffed. Cassandra rolled her eyes at the typical _male_ response to that suggestion and said, “Okay, what if I take a bath with you?”

“I don’t think the tub’s big enough for both of us,” he pointed out.

Cassandra hummed in agreement and offhandedly said, “Well, I guess we’ll have to get a bigger one if we ever get a place together.”

After a moment, Stone said, “Do you wanna do that?”

“Get a place together?” Cassandra asked. Stone nodded. “But we’ve only been together seven months.”

“Doesn’t have to be tomorrow,” Stone shrugged. “I got some time left on my lease, and I bet you do, too, but, maybe…when the leases are up?”

Cassandra smiled and ran her fingers through his hair again. She nodded. “When the leases are up.”

Cassandra gently cupped his face in her palm and ran her thumb slowly against his cheek for a moment before she slipped out from underneath him, telling him to try and get some more sleep. He grabbed her arm as she started walking away, and she crouched down on the floor by the couch, near where his head now lie against a pillow.

“There is one thing you could do,” he said. Her eyes widened, eager to help him feel better in any way that she could. He tapped his cheek, and she giggled, leaning up to give his cheek a kiss.

“That’s all you wanted?” she said with a smile.

“I want a real kiss, but I know we can’t…” he grumbled. Before he could finish, his words were cut off by her mouth on his. It took him a moment to register what was happening, but when he did, he pushed her away. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You said you wanted a kiss,” Cassandra said. “I’m not going to get sick.”

“How you figure that?” Stone asked. Cassandra grabbed the amulet around her neck and held it up to his line of vision. “That thing don’t make you invincible, remember?”

“True, but the way I understand it, if this thing maintains the healthy state of my brain cells, then the magic contained within it probably applies to _all_ of my cells, so while I should continue to avoid bullets and lightning and freak accidents, I probably don’t need to be lining up for a flu shot anytime soon.”

Stone took a moment to process what she said and realized, “That means you’ll never get sick again,” he grumbled. Cassandra simply shrugged. On any other day, that would be a good thing, but on that particular day, such an idea just pissed him off. He sunk into his pillow and grumbled, “You don’t know that for sure.”

Cassandra shrugged again. “We’ll call this my experiment then,” she said.

She wandered out of the living room, leaving him to the television and hopefully some more sleep. He frowned as he watched her scamper out of the room before finally settling on a game to watch. He heard music pouring out of his bedroom, and he knew she was probably sitting in the middle of the bed, her head in a book describing whatever kind of science she correlated to that type of music.

He thought about the woman in his bedroom, the magic around her neck, and the conversation they’d just had, and Stone slumped down a little further on the couch and crossed his arms against his chest. “Can’t get sick…” he muttered to himself, feeling a cough building in his chest again. “That’s not freaking fair.”


	11. Best Laid Plans...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the anniversary of Cassandra's surgery, and she just can't seem to make herself pick up the phone...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not even going to pretend to have excuses anymore, lol. I hope some of you out there are still reading this :)

“You sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Jacob Stone asked again.

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “For the _eighth_ time _this morning_ , Jacob...”

She reached for the jacket strewn across her chair, but he grabbed her hand and stopped her. His thumb gently caressed the skin on the back of her hand as he said, “MRIs make you nervous.”

“Yeah, they do,” she admitted. “But you can’t be in there with me, so… _I’m fine_.”

It’d been exactly a year since the brain surgery that changed Cassandra’s life, which meant it was time for her final follow-up appointment in Seattle, and this time, she felt confident enough to go to the hospital alone. Cassandra dropped his hand and grabbed her jacket, slipping it on. She didn’t need it, not really, since the Back Door would transport her from the Annex right to the middle of Grey Sloan Memorial, but Dr. Shepherd was an inquisitive one, and Cassandra thought she needed to keep up appearances. With quick work of the buttons on the purple coat and a kiss to her grumpy boyfriend’s cheek for extra reassurance, she slipped through the portal to Seattle.

Just as Stone closed the door behind her, Baird and Ezekiel entered from the main Library. Baird caught a glimpse of the familiar hospital and turned to Stone.

“We should probably do something for Cassandra, right?” Baird asked. “Are you doing anything to celebrate?”

“Uh, _yeah_ , I took her to a Taylor Swift concert,” Stone grumbled.

Ezekiel, without missing a beat, said, “Are you still on that? You gotta shake it off, mate.”

Baird stifled a laugh and said, “Come on, this is a big day; we should do _something_.”

“Isn’t it a little late for that?” Ezekiel asked.

“You guys threw together a birthday party for me in just a few hours, so…ideas, people? How’d you pull that off?”

“Uh… _Cassandra_ ,” Ezekiel told her. Baird sighed at the lack of enthusiasm in the room.

“It don’t matter, Baird. She wants to do something for us instead of the other way ‘round,” Stone revealed. “She still feels like she owes us.”

“She doesn’t,” Ezekiel said.

“I know that!” Stone exclaimed.

“What is she doing?” Baird asked. “She’s not going to too much trouble, is she?”

“Don’t know,” Stone shrugged. “She just said to get everyone to the house by seven.”

 

He was out on a case with the others when she returned from Seattle that afternoon, but he left early, as soon as Jenkins told him she’d gone home. Stone entered the little house they’d bought when their apartment leases ran out to silence. The lights were off, the rooms illuminated from the sunlight spilling between the blinds, and his heart clenched when he heard her softly crying.

“Cassandra?” he called. He pushed their bedroom open slowly and found her on the floor, cell phone in hand, tears falling onto her crossed knees.

Stone’s stomach dropped. How could he have let her go to that appointment alone? They all believed so strongly in the magic of the amulet around her neck, they all forget that nothing with magic was certain. Imagining her face when Dr. Shepherd told her something showed up on the new MRI, alone with nobody’s hand to hold for comfort, almost brought tears to his own eyes as he lowered himself to the ground next to her.

“It’s okay,” he whispered. He touched her shoulder, trying to draw her into him. “I’ll call everyone and cancel whatever it was you had planned. What do you need?”

She finally turned to look at him, a startled look crossing her face when she noticed his own impending tears through hers. “Jacob…?” she asked.

“It’ll be okay, Cassie,” he promised, kissing her hand. He swallowed his own emotions and tried to pull her into his chest again, for his own benefit as much as hers, but she didn’t budge. In frustration, he blurted out, “Will you please let me hold you?”

“Why are you…” Cassandra started. Her eyes widened. “Oh god, no! There’s no…why is that _always_ the first place you go?”

“Because I love you, damn it,” Stone sighed in relief, slumping against the frame of the bed, his shoulder touching hers. “What’s wrong? What did Dr. Shepherd say?”

“Nothing,” Cassandra said. “She said I was still perfect, and then it was a lot of self-congratulating…you know, the usual.”

Despite himself, Stone chuckled. Cassandra did, too, causing a tear to spill down her cheek as her eyes crinkled with laughter. He reached up to brush her tear away, but he didn’t say anything else, choosing to let her tell him what was going on.

“It’s been a year,” Cassandra finally said. “It’s been a _year_ , and they still don’t know.”

“Your parents?” he asked.

Cassandra nodded. “So I was going to call and tell them because despite all their faults, they deserve to know.”

“And they were mean?” Stone asked, prying the phone from her tightly clutched hand and replacing it with his own palm.

Cassandra laughed again, at her own expense this time, as her fingers curled around his. “I couldn’t even press the talk button,” she said. Her face broke a little, and she softly sobbed as she said, “Why can’t I do this?”

“Because family ain’t easy,” Stone said.

“Ours is,” Cassandra said. “This family – you and me and Colonel Baird and Flynn and Ezekiel and Jenkins…we’re pretty easy.”

“We chose each other,” Stone said. “I mean, somewhere along the way, we chose to be more than just people you see at the office, you know? The family you don’t choose aren’t as easy.”

He held up her phone and squeezed her hand. “Do you want to call them together?” he offered.

Cassandra shook her head. “No,” she said. “I just…I don’t think I can.”

Stone put the phone back on the floor next to him. “Okay,” he said. “You can try again when you’re ready.”

“I should be able to do this now,” Cassandra muttered.

Stone shrugged. “If you ain’t ready, darlin’, you ain’t ready.”

Cassandra smiled sadly and let her head fall onto his shoulder, keeping their hands intertwined on his thigh. After a few moments, he laid his head on top of hers and let out a sigh.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked with a whisper.

“You,” he said. “And how this time last year, I was holding your hand in a hospital bed, trying not to count all the wires and things coming out of you.”

“Was it really that bad?” Cassandra asked. “I should’ve had someone take a picture.”

“It was…startlin’,” he admitted.

“I can’t believe it’s been a year,” she muttered.

“Feels shorter or longer?” he asked.

“Both, actually,” she said. “I lived with it for so long, a year without it feels like nothing, but then I think about how different things are…”

She squeezed his hand, and he squeezed hers in return, finishing her thought with, “And it feels like it’s gotta be longer than just a year.”

“Exactly,” she said. Silence fell over them for a few moments before Cassandra admitted, “Ezekiel stealing those scans was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Stone audibly groaned. “Whatever you do, darlin’, don’t tell him that,” Stone said. “His ego is already too big for this house.”

That comment sent Cassandra into a fit of giggles, and Stone started chuckling, too, happy to hear the melodious sounds of her laughter. She was distracted, so he took the opportunity to scoop her up into his lap. Cassandra’s fingers found their way into his hair; her laughter dissolved into a sweet smile, which turned into a sweet kiss.

 

A few hours later, the sun was setting outside their window, but Jacob and Cassandra were already curled up together in bed. The pads of his fingers gently caressed her bare back, and her lips lingered along his jaw line. As she leaned back a little, Cassandra’s attention was briefly pulled to the window, a noise outside piquing something in the back of her mind, but she shrugged it off, burying her face in Jacob’s chest instead of investigating further. He kissed her forehead and tightened his hold on her, and she puckered her lips, kissing the skin beneath them.

“I’m sorry you were so upset when I walked in here today, but I ain’t sorry it lead to this,” he admitted, his tone soft so as not to disturb the peaceful atmosphere. Cassandra was just about to moan her approval when a voice rang out in the twilight outside.

“ _Oi, you two have about two minutes to open this door before I pick the lock!_ ” Ezekiel called. “ _Baird’s got an anniversary ice cream cake out here!_ ”

“ _That was supposed to be a surprise, Jones!_ ” Baird hissed.

“ _Well, I’m not letting good dessert melt_ ,” Ezekiel argued. Then he yelled, a little louder, “ _A minute and a half!_ ”

Inside, Cassandra was looking up at Stone with wide, deer-in-the-headlight eyes. “Oh my god,” she muttered. “I totally…I got so caught up in…there was the phone and my parents and then you and then we…I forgot they were coming!”

“What were the plans anyway?” Stone said, rolling himself out of bed to find their clothes.

“Dinner!” Cassandra said, reaching for her dress. She held it against her naked body and peered out the window to find all of their friends on the front stoop. “I was going to make everyone dinner tonight!”

“So we’re having a dinner party with no food?” Stone said.

“ _Fifty-nine! Fifty-eight! Fifty-seven!_ ” Ezekiel yelled from outside the house.

“Ooh!” Cassandra said suddenly. “Do you still have that easy roll and bake pizza crust dough in the fridge?”

“From when Jess and Annabelle came to visit?” Stone asked. Cassandra nodded. “I think so.”

“Perfect!” Cassandra said as she straightened her dress against her body and tried to ignore Ezekiel’s countdown.

Stone chuckled. “So you’re gonna thank Jones for stealing your medical records and then make him pizza?” he asked.

Cassandra paused. “Too much?” she asked.

“That kid’s gonna fall in love with you,” he teased. "You're an enabler."

“ _Forty! Thirty-nine!  Hey, I'm giving you a fair warning here! Thirty-eight!_ ” Ezekiel called from outside.

Cassandra pretended to be offended before she made her way around the bed to give Stone another reassuring kiss on the cheek. As she scurried towards the door before Ezekiel could hit the end of his rapidly quickening countdown, she glanced over her shoulder and said, “Good thing I’m already taken.”


	12. Merely Valuable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacob needs to find the perfect ring for Cassandra.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a few more chapters left here, but I think this might be one of my favorites. Enjoy!

“So tell me again what I’m doing here?” Eve Baird asked, looking at the foreign objects in the well-lit cases around her.

“We’re getting Cassandra an engagement ring,” Jacob Stone said.

Baird nodded; that much, she knew. “That’s what _you’re_ doing here,” she clarified.

Stone groaned. “I need your help, alright?” he sighed. “I don’t know how to pick something like this. Especially for Cassand…well, you’ve seen how she dresses!”

“And if you needed my help learning how to throw a punch or something like that, sure, but this…” Baird said, glancing at a display case again. “ _This_ is not really my area of expertise, _especially_ for someone with Cassandra’s taste.”

“You’re a girl,” Stone pointed out. “That’s good enough for me.”

Before Baird could protest further, a jewelry store sales associate walked over, obviously having sensed the lost nature of the two people standing in the center of the showroom. “Is there anything I can help you with today?” he asked.

“Yeah, uh…” Stone said nervously. “We’re looking for engagement rings.”

“Smart man,” the jeweler joked, gesturing towards Baird. “Gotta make sure the lady’s happy with her ring, right?”

Stone winced as the jeweler mistakenly took himself and Baird as the happy couple, and Baird laughed out loud at the mere idea that the ring Stone would be purchasing would be for _her_ , so loud she drew a few stares of some of the other customers.

“I’m sorry, did I say something?” the sales associate asked.

“It ain’t _that_ funny!” Stone hissed as Baird’s laughter died down.

Baird turned to the sales associates and said, “You need to turn that train of thought around and head back to the station because _nope_. I’m just…well, I don’t really know what I’m doing here.”

The jeweler, getting the picture, stifled a laugh and pointed the pair over to one of the display cases. “Right this way,” he said. He walked around the back as Stone and Baird settled on the other side. The jeweler pulled a row of rings out of the display case. “Now, these are some of our most popular styles; they come in a variety of carat sizes, designed to fit any price range.”

Stone stared down at the rings for a few seconds before turning to Baird. “What do you think?”

Baird looked down at the rings, too, and shrugged. “They’re nice,” she said.

“But are any of them…you know, I don’t really think ‘most popular’ anything fits Cassandra,” he decided. “She wouldn’t want something a million other women had. What else you got?”

“Okay,” the jeweler said, sliding down a case. Baird and Stone moved, too, on their side of the table. He pulled out another row of diamond rings. “These are a little more unique.”

“Alright, yeah…that might be better,” Stone said, mostly to himself. “Baird?”

“What?” she asked. She realized he was waiting on her opinion again and sighed, “I don’t know, Stone. They all look the same to me.”

“They…how can they all look the same to you?” he asked, anger creeping into his tone.

“Because they do,” Baird shrugged.

“That one’s _pink_!” Stone pointed out, gesturing towards a ring with a pink diamond in the center.

“Cassandra likes pink,” Baird offered.

“Yeah, but would she want pink _every day_?” Stone asked.

“She doesn’t even stick with the same nail polish color two days in a row,” Baird pointed out.

“So you think no to anything colored?” Stone asked.

“I don’t know,” Baird sighed. “This is why you shouldn’t have picked _me_ for help.”

“Well, Jones woulda sabotaged me, and Flynn would blab and ruin the surprise, and my sister’s in Oklahoma, so what would you suggest I do?” Stone asked.

 

“Jenkins?” Stone asked, hovering in the doorway of Jenkins’s lab.

“Yes, Mr. Stone?” Jenkins asked, barely glancing away from his project.

“Uh…quick question,” Stone said.

Jenkins smiled knowingly and put his work aside. He snapped the latex gloves off his hands and headed for the doorway.

“Follow me, Mr. Stone,” he said.

A look on confusion on his face, Stone simply turned around and followed the caretaker into the Library. In silence, they wove through aisles and corridors until Stone was glad he wasn’t alone because he had lost confidence in his ability to return to the Annex.

“Jenkins?” Stone finally asked, looking at the dark section of the Library that surrounded them. “Where, uh…where the hell are we?”

“Oh,” Jenkins said. “Ancient magic. This section likes to hide itself.”

“What, like, it moves?” Stone asked. “Like the staircases in _Harry Potter_?”

“Not quite, Mr. Stone,” Jenkins said. “It simply prefers to…send the books to you.”

Stone’s lips curved into a smile, the wonder of the place still getting to him every now and then. They turned down another dark aisle, halting suddenly when they found Cassandra sitting on the ground in the magic section, her back against a bookcase, books covering her lap. The baubles of light hovering over her head extinguished as she gasped and slammed one of the books shut.

“ _Cassandra_?” Stone asked, coming around Jenkins to see his startled girlfriend.

“What are, what are you doing here?” she stuttered.

“What are you…I thought you were out on a case with Flynn today?” Stone asked.

“I thought you were going to be out on a case with Colonel Baird all morning,” she said.

“I…I was,” Stone said. “Jenkins is uh…helping us out with something.”

“Oh,” Cassandra said with a nod. She looked down at the books in her lap and said, “I’m just doing some research. You know, for the…case.”

Jenkins looked between the two lovers with a suspicious look on his face. He knew why Mr. Stone was lying about his morning activities, but he didn’t know what Miss Cillian and the Librarian were up to. Jenkins looked over at Cassandra again and noticed the title of the book she was trying to conceal with her fingers had dulled, changed from its vibrant gold to a color almost indistinguishable against the brown leather cover. His suspicious gaze caught her wide, blue eyes, and her face reddened slightly. Before she could silently beg him not to draw attention to what she was doing in the dark section of the Library, Flynn’s voice rang out from the opposite end of the aisle.

 “ _We’re off to see a wizard, a wonderful wizard of…_ ” Flynn sing, skipping into view. He faltered when he noted the presence of Jenkins and Stone as well and said, “Croatia. The wizard of Croatia. He’s not really a wizard, really. Just a guy who thinks he is. He really needs our help. We best be going. Cassandra?”

Cassandra gathered up her books and scurried after Flynn, sending a simple smile in the other men’s direction. Stone looked a little confused but turned to Jenkins as soon as she disappeared from view, wanting to get back to the task at hand.

“Yes, well…right this way,” Jenkins said, leading Stone back on their path.

They finally arrived in a small storage room in a corner of the Library, the room filled with dusty old furniture. The confusion on Stone’s face grew as Jenkins flipped on a flashlight and handed one to Stone as well. It didn’t look like anyone had been in this room in decades. Jenkins walked right over to a dresser against the far wall and opened one of the small, top drawers.

“Here you are, Mr. Stone,” Jenkins said, pulling out a small, wooden box. “I think you will find that to be to Miss Cillian’s liking.”

Stone opened the box to find a ring nestled inside. It would need a good shining, he thought, but it was perfect. He ran his flashlight over the intricate, twisted band, checked out how the pale blue gemstone in the center sparkled in the light, and swept the light across the three smaller blue stones on the other side, turning the ring around in his free hand.

“How did you know?” Stone asked, looking up at Jenkins again.

“I know everything, Mr. Stone,” Jenkins said with another knowing smile.

“This ring…it’s not…I mean, it’s okay to give to her?” Stone asked. “It’s not cursed or nothing, right?”

Jenkins smiled again. “Not everything in this Library is _magical_ , Mr. Stone. Some of our relics are merely…valuable.”

“Shoulda started with you,” Stone muttered. “How much do I owe you?”

“Take it,” Jenkins said. “It belongs on Miss Cillian’s finger.”

 

Later that night, Cassandra returned home as the sun was setting. Stone was in the kitchen, preparing for the next day. He hadn’t quite planned on proposing so early, but once he saw the ring Jenkins gave him, he knew he needed to do it before he lost his nerve. He was going to take her back to the park in Seattle, where they’d taken a walk after their first kiss, and was working on pulling together a picnic lunch when Cassandra wandered into the kitchen.

“Hey,” she said, coming around the counter for a quick hello kiss.

“Hey,” he replied. “How was the case with Flynn? Did you help the wizard?”

“Oh,” Cassandra said. “Um…yes. Yeah, it went well.” She offered no other details and, after a moment, awkwardly said, “How was your case with Baird?”

“Oh, it was…” Stone stuttered. “Jenkins kind of saved the day.”

“That’s good,” Cassandra smiled. “So what’s all this?”

“Well, I talked to Baird this afternoon, and you and I are gonna take tomorrow off,” Stone said. “If, uh…if that’s okay.”

Cassandra, adrenaline still coursing through her veins from her day with the Croatian wizard teaching her magic, noticeably stiffened. “Why?” she asked.

“I thought you and I could spend the day in Seattle,” he said.

“Seattle?” she asked.

“Yeah, so I’m making lunch to eat in the park,” he said.

“The park near the hospital?” Cassandra asked.

“Yeah,” Stone said. “And then I, uh, got us a room in that hotel for tomorrow night.”

“Why?” Cassandra asked again, almost fearfully.

“What?” Stone asked, looking up from his work, startled by her bleak reaction to his plans.

“Why do we need a hotel?” she asked. “Did…did Dr. Shepherd call while I was out?”

“Oh, no, Cassie, it’s nothing like that,” Stone said quickly.

“Then why do we need a hotel? Why are…why are we taking a day off to hang out near the hospital?” she asked.

“Hey, hey…darlin’, calm down,” Stone said, walking over to her.

“Why Seattle?” she asked. “I mean, we could go anywhere. If you want a day with me, why would we go…?”

“Because that’s kind of where you and I started,” he told her.

“Yeah, but…okay, the last time we ended up in Seattle, it was all secrets and almost trickery, and now all of a sudden, we’re just taking tomorrow off and spending the night near the hospital where my brain surgeon is, so you understand why I’m kind of…” Cassandra babbled, her hands gesticulating in front of her.

“That’s not what this is,” Stone said again.

“Then what is this?” Cassandra asked.

“I’m asking you to marry me!” Stone blurted out.

“ _What_?” Cassandra replied, freezing.

“I…” Stone started. He sighed and said, “Alright, this isn’t how I wanted to do it, but I also didn’t mean to scare you so…I know we ain’t even quite at a year yet, so we don’t have to do it right away, but I love you, and…”

“Yes,” Cassandra said, still frozen in place in the kitchen.

“What?” Stone asked.

“ _Yes_ ,” Cassandra said again.

She walked over to him and threw her arms around his shoulders. One hand cupped the back of his head, bringing him in for a tender kiss. He curled his arms around her body, bringing her in snugly against him, and they kissed in the middle of the kitchen until they had to pause and catch their breaths. Cassandra leaned in for another kiss, and Stone pulled back slightly.

“Wait,” Stone whispered, brushing some hair away from her face. “There’s a ring.”

Cassandra’s eyes sparkled as she shot him a radiant smile. Matching his tone, she whispered, “Give it to me in Seattle,” and leaned in for another kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments always make my day :)


	13. Costumes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra and Jacob have dinner with Cassandra's parents two nights before the wedding...

Cassandra Cillian stood in her bathroom, silently curling her hair with a curling iron. She had a vacant look on her face, making the motions almost mechanically. Her attention was momentarily pulled as the gemstone on her finger, the one that matched her eyes, caught the light and sparkled in the mirror; she focused her eyes on the ring, smiling as she thought about how there’d be another on that finger in just two more days.

But first – first she had to get through _this_.

Her fiancé walked into the bathroom, so she shifted her gaze to him, looking at him through the mirror. He looked ready to go, dressed in a solid dress shirt, a pair of slacks she’d never seen before, and a tie. The smile she sent his way had a sadness behind it; he looked so handsome, but he didn’t quite look like him.

“Did you buy those just for this?” Cassandra asked softly.

“Uh…yeah,” Stone admitted. “Do I look okay?”

“You look perfect,” she said, looping another strand of red hair through the iron.

“Who do you want me to be tonight?” he asked. She turned, finally, confused. “I mean, do you want me to be the me that you see or the me that everyone outside of our little Library family knows?”

“The Jacob I see, of course,” Cassandra said, putting the curling iron down. “I mean, not that it really matters. This is going to be horrible either way, but you’ll have a much better chance if you’re yourself, and that’s not just a line I’m feeding you. I’m serious.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Stone asked, shifting uncomfortably against the door.

“Honey, remember everything I’ve ever told you about my parents and their lifestyle and my whole upbringing,” she said. “Genius renowned art historian Jacob has a much better shot at pleasing them than oil rig cowboy Jake does.”

Stone nodded; he understood that. “You gonna tell ‘em about the surgery tonight?”

“No,” Cassandra said, turning back to the mirror, unable to meet his eyes.

“So what am I supposed to do when they ask me about the tumor because you know that’s gonna come up?” Stone asked.

“Lie,” Cassandra said.

“What?” Stone asked.

Cassandra cringed and turned back around to face him. “I know. You’ve spent your whole life lying, and I just told you not to, and it’s horrible; I know, but…I need you to lie about this.”

“Why?” Stone asked.

“Because I had a wall full of STEM fair trophies, and my parents thought their kid was going to grow up and cure cancer – ironic, I know – but _I_ thought I was going to grow up and do things like cure cancer, and while I’m pretty content and more than happy with how things have turned out for me, _they_ will _not_ be.” Cassandra looked away again and softly said, “It’s easier to let them think I’m failing because of the tumor than it is to admit that I’m still not living up to their hopes and dreams.”

“You’re not failin’,” Stone said.

“I know,” Cassandra said. “And I know the tumor’s just a crutch, but for the sake of making it through this wedding with a little bit of peace, can we please just…not tell them?”

Stone chuckled softly to himself. “You and I ain’t that different when it comes to family.” He kissed the side of her head and headed out to let her finish getting ready.

 

Later, at the restaurant, the foursome sat in silence after the waiter took their orders and walked away. Cassandra’s mother sipped her red wine, her father stared at Stone in an obvious attempt to intimidate him, and Stone glanced at Cassandra, uncomfortable with the entire situation. The restaurant was fancy, so were her parents, and he hadn’t been quite sure of what to order. Part of him was also a little afraid to speak, as Cassandra’s mother had almost immediately looked displeased with the Southern twang in his voice. The silence suited Cassandra just fine, though Stone did notice that she kind of looked like she hoped the white circular booth would just swallow her whole.

“So…Jacob,” her mother finally said. “Cassandra tells us you’re quite an accomplished academic author. What was your last paper about?”

“Mom, I sent you his last paper on Dutch colonial architecture,” Cassandra said. “I thought you’d like it; you’ve always liked architecture.”

“No, dear, you sent me a paper by an Oliver Thompson,” she said.

“That’s him,” Cassandra said. “You didn’t look at it?”

Cassandra’s mother turned to Stone. “I thought your name was Jacob,” she said.

“Uh…it is, ma’am,” Stone said.

“So why would Cassandra send me a paper with a different name on it if it’s yours?” she asked. She used what Cassandra had deemed the “fancy” pronunciation of her name, with the long version of the middle syllable, and Cassandra rolled her eyes besides Stone.

“It’s…uh…it’s a long story,” Stone said.

“Well, we’ve got time,” her mother said. “This restaurant doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to serve us if the speed at which they brought the drinks is any indication.”

“Oh, we don’t have that much time,” Cassandra said, trying to change the subject.

“A man should take pride in his work,” her father said, looking at Stone. “If you do good work, don’t ever give up the credit. Are you not proud of what you do?”

“Okay, new subject please,” Cassandra said with a false cheer. Once the sentence was out of her lips, she sighed and shrunk down in her seat.

Her mother took another sip of her wine and said, “I must say, we were quite surprised to get that wedding invitation. I didn’t even know Cassandra was with someone.”

“Or in Oregon,” her father added under his breath.

“How long have you been engaged without telling us?” her mother asked.

“About three and a half months,” Cassandra said. Her parents both froze, looking at one another with stunned expressions.

“Are you pregnant?” her father asked.

“Oh, _Cassandra_ , please tell me you aren’t seriously stupid enough to get pregnant what with the…” her mother trailed off, vaguely pointing to her own head.

Cassandra took a deep breath and replied, “I am not pregnant.”

“Well, that’s a relief, but _three and a half months_? That’s hardly enough time to plan a good dinner party, let alone a whole wedding,” her mother said.

Stone shot Cassandra an ‘ _is-she-serious_?’ look as Cassandra quickly said, “Well, we didn’t really plan on doing it so quickly, but he…something happened…”

Cassandra trailed off, unable to explain to her parents that Stone had been poisoned by a literal poison apple on another fairytale-themed case early that summer, and all he remembered was Cassandra screaming about how she was supposed to go first as he lost consciousness in the field and Cassandra muttering ‘September’ over and over again as he woke up in the Library. He’d held her, promised her a September wedding date, and that was that.

“Something…” her mother started, prompting Cassandra for more.

“So why wait?” Cassandra finished with the false chipper voice again, not taking the bait.

“You must have an amazing wedding planner,” her mother said.

“Oh, no wedding planner,” Cassandra said.

“Unless Flynn counts; I think he’s more excited than we are,” Stone joked, eliciting the first giggle of the night from his future bride.

Her father took her mother’s hand and said, “I’m sure it’ll be fine. You know, time isn’t really on her side.”

Her mother nodded in agreement, and Stone almost had to physically stop his jaw from dropping. Little did they know the words they were saying were no longer true, but to say that in front of her… He looked at Cassandra, and even though the words were no longer true, she looked smaller to him somehow. He curled his hand around her knee underneath the table.

“So Portland,” her father said, trying to fill the sudden silence. “You like it here?”

Cassandra smiled softly upon hearing the seemingly friendly question. “Yeah, Dad. I really do.”

“Don’t you have to have a degree or two to be a librarian?” he asked.

Her face almost instantly deflated as she meekly replied, “I’m just an assistant.”

Her mother sighed with disapproval, and her father said, “Is that really the best place for you?”

Her mother grabbed her father’s arm and said, “Well, it’s better than being a _janitor_.”

“But at least with that job she was in a hospital for when…” her father abruptly stopped his thought, nodded towards Cassandra’s head and said, “Well…you know.”

A silence settled over the table again as Stone, once again, felt baffled by what he was hearing. Cassandra shrunk a little further into her seat, and her mother excused herself to the restroom, taking her designer purse with her. The engaged couple sat in silence for a few moments before her father stood as well.

“I’m going to go check on our food,” he said. “Excuse me.”

“How are you doing?” Cassandra asked as soon as they were alone.

“How am _I_? Cassie, they’re barely paying attention to me. Why are you lettin’ them talk to you like this?” he asked.

“What do you mean?” she asked softly.

“Where’s that feisty girl who didn’t take any of my crap when I was a jackass to you down in that labyrinth?” he asked. “They’re…you’re just takin’ it.”

Cassandra shrugged, and swirled the straw around her glass, watching the ice collide. “That’s just how it is,” she said. “That’s how it’s always been. It’s just two more days.”

“Yeah, but I don’t like seeing you like this,” he admitted. After a moment, he realized, “This is how you felt watching me in that bar in Oklahoma.”

She smiled, curled her hand around the one resting on her knee, and let her head fall onto his shoulder, already exhausted from the evening that had barely begun. “We’re not that different,” she reminded him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more chapters left in this story! Thanks for hanging in there with me :)


	14. Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cassandra and Jacob return home from the wedding reception that didn't exactly go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Stone & Cassandra's wedding reception was something I tackled in the original story in this universe. Anyone who might have missed the first story (or anyone who needs a refresher on what happened at the wedding with Cassandra and her parents) should probably check out the last chapter at the link below. It'll help this one make a little more sense!
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/3841924/chapters/8911396

After the twinkle lights had been turned off and all the guests had headed off to their homes or hotels, the newly married Jacob Stone and Cassandra Cillian arrived back to their little house in Portland. Stone unlocked the door, swung it open, and turned to his bride.

“Should I carry you into the house?” he pondered. “That’s the thing, right? The threshold or something?”

“Oh,” Cassandra said. “You don’t have to…”

Before she could finish her refusal, Stone had scooped her up into his arms. She yelped in surprise, a cry that dissolved into laughter as she caught site of the boyish grin on her husband’s face. He set her down inside the foyer with a kiss to her cheek and turned around to lock the door behind them. Her laughter trailed off into a soft sigh.

Stone turned to find her looking around their darkened home, lingering – almost twirling – around the room, her face colored with melancholy. She’d been down since the reception. Stone knew the only one at the wedding who judged her for the outburst with her parents was her, but he also knew that no matter how true that was, she was still hurting. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her middle.

“Talk to me,” he said quietly.

“It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?” she asked softly.

“What?” he asked, matching her tone.

“That we just had this big, monumental day, and now we’re home…and everything’s the same, exactly how we left it,” she said. “It feels weird after a day like today.”

Stone pulled back and pulled his phone from his pocket. “You said you didn’t want a hotel tonight, but I could probably still find one if here’s making you uncomfortable,” he said.

She grabbed his hand, covering the phone with her own palm. “No! It’s okay.” Cassandra waved her hand in a dismissive manner and said, “I felt the same way when I got home from the surgery. I was so different. It was weird that my home wasn’t. It’s the same thing now.”

“Being married isn’t gonna be so different, darlin’,” Stone said.

“I know…but it makes us a little different,” she said. After a moment, she titled her head a bit and added, “Yelling at my parents makes _me_ different.” Cassandra sighed and let her shoulders slump. “It was a big day.”

Stone wasn’t quite sure what to do or what she needed, so he stood back and let her take the lead. After another sigh, she reached for him, curling her fingers around the collar of his shirt. Cassandra leaned in for a kiss. His hand came up to lovingly cup her head in his palm, but he pulled away from the kiss as soon as he felt her heart wasn’t in it. He rested his forehead against hers; his eyes were closed, but hers were looking at him quizzically.

“Let’s go to bed,” he said softly.

“What do you think I’m trying to do?” she flirted, tugging on his collar.

Stone chuckled. “No, sweetheart, I meant _really_ to bed. To sleep.”

Cassandra looked a little confused. “You don’t want to…?”

“It’s late. It was a big day,” he said. “If you could see your face right now…”

“I look bad?” she asked.

“You look beautiful,” he said. “Happy, but you also look exhausted. We’ve got the rest of our lives to make love, Cassie.”

Cassandra sighed again, almost in relief, and said, “Well…how about something in between?” She played with the top button on his shirt. “I could go for a warm bath…with candles and…”

Stone cut her off with a sweet peck to her lips. “Let’s go,” he said.

He followed Cassandra into their bathroom, where she pulled a deep purple twilight bath bomb out of a drawer while he turned the tub’s faucet on. She cupped the bath bomb in her hands and held it out to him.

“Lavender,” she said. “Is this okay?”

Stone rested his hands on each of her shoulders and softly rubbed up and down her skin. “It’s fine,” he promised. He leaned in for a few slow, tender kisses. Cassandra giggled softly as he lingered near her lips after the last kiss. “What?” he whispered.

“Cupcakes,” she muttered with a smile. “Everything smells like strawberries.”

Stone grinned; that was a little more like his normal Cassandra. He kissed her again and said, “I’ll be right back.”

She smiled again as he looked back at her on his way out the door. She moved to throw the bath bomb in the tub, quietly gasping when she realized the bomb in her hands was no longer purple. It was red now, almost the exact color of a strawberry. Cassandra sighed; she thought she’d come a long way since she’d started dabbling in magic; she normally had more control than she’d displayed today. With a quick glance out the door to make sure she was still alone, she sniffed the bath bomb; it still smelled like lavender.

“Well, that’s interesting…” she muttered to herself, tossing it into the water.

Stone returned to the bathroom to find Cassandra sitting in the tub, her legs curled to her chest. The light from the flaming candles lined up on the counter danced across her bare skin, and he took a moment to just admire her. Cassandra laid her head against her knees, silently watching; she grinned again when he playfully waved the champagne bottle and glasses in his hands. Placing them on the floor near the tub, he picked her wedding dress off the floor and hung it on the hanger he’d brought with him. He finally discarded the last of his clothes, slipped in the water behind her, and caressed her sides. That’s when she started to cry.

Stone pulled her back against his chest, wrapped his arms around her, and whispered soothing sounds in her ear. “I was wonderin’ when this was coming,” he muttered.

“You knew?” she cried, her voice hitching as she breathed.

“When you didn’t cry after dinner the other night and when I saw ya sitting under that tree all lost in thought, I thought this was probably how tonight would end,” he admitted. “I’m so sorry that this is what you’re gonna remember from today.”

“No,” Cassandra said, shaking her head. “I mean, yes, I’m going to remember that, but I’m also going to remember the gorgeous dress and my handsome husband and…seeing Flynn crying after that kiss that made us husband and wife despite all those early relationship protests.” She laughed at that last part, and he chuckled too. Cassandra laid her head back on his shoulder and looked at him. She caressed his cheek and promised, “I’m going to remember so much more than just my parents.”

Stone leaned a little to give her another kiss, and she relaxed against his chest, letting the warm water and her husband’s embrace soothe her. He kissed her forehead, and she closed her eyes.

“Wanna hear my favorite part of the reception?” he asked.

“Yes!” she said, looking up from her place on his shoulder again.

“The look on your face when Ezekiel handed over the present he’d swiped from your mama’s purse!” Stone said with a hearty laugh.

Cassandra’s mouth dropped as if she had discovered the offense all over again. “Can you even _believe_ she was going to walk out of there without giving it to me?” Cassandra exclaimed.

“After that performance she gave at the reception…yes,” Stone said. “No offense, darlin’, but your mama ain’t a very nice woman.”

“Yeah, no kidding,” Cassandra said. Rather than sink back into sadness, she thought of Ezekiel’s action again and just started laughing. She almost wished she’d be there to see her mother’s face when she realized the gift had disappeared from her purse.

“Are we gonna be gettin’ a call about that?” Stone asked. “Or them trying to press charges or something? I mean, that bracelet looked expensive.”

“I’m sure it is. Family heirloom,” Cassandra said. “But no. Asking us about the gift would mean admitting she had something that she didn’t actually intend to give me after the fight.”

“Are you sure?” Stone asked.

“Mm-hmm,” Cassandra nodded. “She’ll just discover it’s missing, go home, and rant to all her friends about the hooligans at her daughter’s quaint and rustic wedding.”

Stone laughed again. “But won’t she wonder where it went?”

Cassandra shrugged. “Maybe I’ll wear it in a Christmas card picture.”

She shot him another smile, and upon seeing the gleam in her eye, he chuckled again and leaned down for a kiss. He reached over the side of the tub and asked, “Champagne?”

“Yes, please,” she said.

He poured two glasses and handed her one, tipping them together in a cheers. They both sipped the champagne, and Stone’s hand lazily began to trail across her skin underneath the hazy water. After a few minutes of silence, he asked, “Do you ever wish that had been your life?”

“What?” she asked.

“I don’t know, that whole lifestyle your parents have,” Stone asked. “You probably would’ve had that if not for the tumor. You maybe still could.”

“Stop,” she said. She placed her glass on the side of the tub and rolled so her stomach was against his. She traced patterns against his chest as his hands settled against her back. Cassandra leaned in for a sweet kiss, looked into his eyes, and said, “I’m exactly where I want to be.”


	15. Bewitched

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The secret about Cassandra's exploration of magic finally comes out.

The sunlight woke Jacob up the morning after his wedding. He and Cassandra had finally stumbled from the bathtub to their bedroom, tired and tipsy from a little too much champagne. Without opening his eyes, he rolled over, wanting to snuggle his wife’s warm back and bury his face in her soft red hair. He expected her to still be snoozing beside him. Instead, when he rolled over, his arm looped around her thighs, and his nose nudged against her hip bone. He opened one eye and found her sitting against the headboard, fully clothed, and nervously twirling her fingers against her chest.

Cassandra was so lost in thought, she didn’t even notice when her husband sought out some lazy morning snuggles. Guilt was ravaging her, but she wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him. He had no idea she had the ability to harness magic. She’d been practicing for a year, and she had never told him. Granted, she was still a work in progress, and it didn’t always work when she wanted, but between the streak of fear that had shot across her stomach when he interrupted her spell to change the color of their wedding roses and the discovery that their bath bomb had changed colors in her hands the night before, she knew she had to tell him. Now, sitting next to him, she wasn’t sure why she had decided to hide this from him in the first place.

Flynn was her enabler, always encouraging, always eager to help her learn magic in ways he never could, displaying only the slightest bit of jealousy when she accomplished something he’d always wanted to do. If Baird knew, she wasn’t letting on. She wouldn’t have minded letting her Guardian in on the secret – Baird was the one who had seen it first, after all – but Flynn seemed to think keeping her in the dark was the thing to do, and based on her earliest reactions, Cassandra agreed. That had set the precedent for everyone else. Jenkins had since put it together on his own; he said nothing to her face, but she hadn’t missed the wary, concerned looks that came her way. Neither of the boys seemed to have noticed at all.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a groan as Stone reluctantly pulled himself up and leaned in to place a kiss on her cheek. She shot him a soft, short smile.

“You could probably power the world with all them thoughts in your head, darlin’,” Stone said, letting himself fall back to the mattress.

“Can you put some clothes on, please?” she asked seriously.

His face fell slightly. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” she said.

Stone racked his brain as he wandered to the dresser for a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. What could possibly have gone wrong in the past ten hours? He dressed quickly and sat down next to her on the bed.

“You’re kind of scarin’ me, Cassie,” he admitted.

“I did something wrong,” she said. “I got married without telling you something kind of big.”

“Okay,” Stone said. “Well, whatever it is, I’m sure it…”

She cut him off before she lost her nerve. “I can do magic,” she said.

“What?” he said with a laugh. He laughed a bit harder and rolled off the bed again. “That’s what had you so worried?”

Stone wandered out of the bedroom, leaving a dumbfounded Cassandra on the bed. A realization hit her and she hurried to catch up with him.

“Wait!” she called. “You don’t believe me?”

“We all do magic,” Stone shrugged, turning on the lights in the kitchen. “Those enchanted books are a lifesaver when researching a paper. That was a good joke, though. You had me goin’.”

“That’s…no…that’s the Library,” Cassandra said. “This is me. _I_ can do magic.”

“You want pancakes or eggs?” Stone asked.

“I…” Cassandra started. Letting out a frustrated sigh, she snapped her fingers, and the overhead lights in the kitchen turned red, bathing the kitchen in a scarlet glow.

Stone froze with one hand outstretched to the refrigerator and slowly looked up to the lights. The lights that were perfectly normal when he had turned them on just a few seconds ago now radiated red.

“Wh…” he said, quickly finding that was the only sound he was capable of making at that moment.

Cassandra cocked her hips and tilted her head as if to say, ‘ _believe me now?_ ’ When he still didn’t say anything, she snapped her fingers again, just to prove that his eyes weren’t deceiving him. The lights turned blue.

“Make ‘em green,” he said. Cassandra thought about it for a moment, snapped her fingers again, and the lights turned green. “Shit, how the hell are you doing that?”

“ _Magic_ ,” Cassandra sighed. “I tried to tell you…”

Before she could say anything else, Stone had grabbed her arm, abandoning his quest for breakfast. He pulled her to the front door and grabbed his keys on the way out.

“Where are we going?” she asked as Stone pulled them out the door.

The question went unanswered during their long, silent journey to the Library. He grasped her arm again, leading her into the Annex once they arrived.

“What are you _doing_?” she asked.

Stone looked around for a moment, found the object of his desire, and tossed it to Cassandra. She caught it and peered at the object in her hands. The globe – Flynn’s globe – the one that showed all the world’s ley lines. Cassandra almost laughed. Stone was obsessed with this globe. Flynn could turn it on with a simple toss; Stone was still unable to make it work, though he still tried on a regular basis.

“Turn it on,” he said.

“What?” she asked.

“If you’re magic, it should work, right?” he asked.

“It works for Flynn, and he can’t do what I can do,” Cassandra pointed out.

“Just…” Stone grabbed it from her and tossed it into the air. Nothing happened except gravity, and the globe fell back into his hands. “See? Try it.”

Cassandra sighed and took the globe. She rolled it in her palms, took a few seconds to focus, and tossed it into the air. The globe expanded, and a map of ley lines covered the Annex.  

“I don’t know if that’s really the definitive…” Cassandra started.

At that moment, Baird and Flynn tumbled through the Back Door, their eyes immediately going to the glowing globe in the center of the room.

“What’s going on?” Flynn asked hesitantly.

“What are you two even doing here?” Baird asked the newlyweds.

“Umm…” Cassandra stuttered, glancing wearily at Baird.

“The…the roses,” Stone stuttered, piecing everything together. “Those crazy white and pink ones yesterday…those ain’t from a local florist. That was…that was you.”

“Oh, you told him,” Flynn said.

“Told him what?” Baird asked.

“And that first case!” Stone exclaimed. “After the surgery, that wasn’t just you standin’ there. That was…you tried to magic that lightning away, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Cassandra admitted.

“Did y’all know Cassandra was doing _magic_?” Stone asked Baird and Flynn.

Flynn shrugged and nodded. Baird, oblivious to Flynn’s nonchalant reaction, looked at Cassandra and said, “Cassandra’s still doing magic?”

“ _Still_?” Stone asked. “How long has this been going on?”

“What was I supposed to do while I was stuck in this Library for _months_ after the surgery while everyone was out adventuring?” Cassandra asked.

“I don’t know,” Stone said. “Research mathy stuff!”

“There’s actually a lot of math in magic. It…” Cassandra started. Realizing she was making it worse, she switched tactics. “That’s just when it started. It’s not…I’m not…it doesn’t always work. I don’t always have control. I can’t really do anything big, and everything I can do seems to be color-related; I guess that’s an effect of the synesthesia. I didn’t even know I was doing it. I was asleep the first time it happened.”

“But you’ve been studyin’ it?” Stone asked.

“The Library _wanted_ me to learn magic. It sent me a book in Seattle,” Cassandra said. “A magic book, in the bag of books Ezekiel brought me. He said he’d never seen it before, so I think the Library…are you mad? Would…would this information have changed anything if I had told you before the wedding?”

“No,” Stone said quickly. “I just don’t know what to say.”

“What can I do?” Cassandra asked.

“I just wish you had told me,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Cassandra said. “I just feel like I’m doing something wrong sometimes by exploring all of this, and I didn’t know what to say.”

At this, Flynn glared at Baird, who looked a bit guilty as the words escaped Cassandra’s lips. She knew her immediate reaction to Cassandra harnessing magic had caused those feelings. Flynn stealthily turned the globe of ley lines off, catching it as it fell from mid-air. By the time the globe fell, Stone had made his way over to Cassandra. He reached for her arm, lightly running his fingers down her skin.

“Color stuff?” Stone asked.

“So far,” she said with a shrug. "It makes sense."

“Could you teach me that finger-snappin’ thing?” he asked.

Cassandra laughed. “I could try,” she offered.

Stone pulled her into a hug that Cassandra happily sunk into. After a few moments, they pulled away, and Cassandra finally turned to Baird again.

“Are _you_ mad?” Cassandra asked the Colonel.

“Not at you,” Baird said, turning her glare towards Flynn. Flynn, confused, pointed to himself, and Baird cocked her eyebrow. “This is just a weekend of secrets, isn’t it?”

“Wh…I didn’t…hey, don’t you two have a honeymoon to get to?” Flynn stuttered, finally turning to Stone and Cassandra. “You brought suitcases yesterday, right? I’ll fire up the globe.”

Before they could get any further, the big clippings book at the end of the table, the book that had been eerily quiet in the week leading up to the Librarians’ wedding, startled rattling. Stone and Cassandra shared an intrigued look.

“No,” Baird said. “Go; enjoy your honeymoon. We got it.”

“But what if you need help?” Cassandra asked.

“Then I’ll drag Jones’s ass out of bed,” Baird said. “ _Go_.” The couple hesitated, glancing at the book and each other again. Baird sighed. “You’re not going to go, are you?”

“The hotel will still be there in a few hours,” Cassandra said, looking at Stone.

“Beach ain’t going anywhere, either,” Stone agreed.

“Wanna save the world?” Cassandra asked, a gleam in her eye.

Stone curled his hand around Cassandra’s as she looked at him with an excited grin. Stone smiled at her and then looked to Flynn.

“Fire up the globe,” he said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we've reached the end of this story! Thanks so much to everyone who hung in there with me and kept reading (never intended to be writing this for a year, ugh.) I hope you enjoyed it :)


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